The Samurai Wives
by spero spiro
Summary: Kaoru, the young daughter of the new emperor, has been raised in the Tokeiji for security. The result of her upbringing is a severe distrust of men, which complicates her life when she must be returned by a certain assassin from the Ishin Shishi. AU
1. Danger

The Samurai Wives

Note: Hello, and welcome back to a new story by moi! This is the story that won the poll I put in near the end of 'Puppeteers'. Thanks to all the people who voted! I must say… I was surprised when this one won… but I'm glad it did, because I had a good concept of how it would work out. Please enjoy, and if you do so enough, please review at the end of this, the first chapter of 'The Samurai Wives'!

Disclaimer: Please don't sue me! I'm just borrowing the characters that belong to Watsuki-sama!

Brief History lesson: The Tokeiji was a Buddhist nunnery where abused women could run away to if they couldn't take their abuse any more. Women were supposedly unable to enter Heaven, so a woman had to live a good life in order to be reincarnated as a man, who could, if also having lived an honorable life, enter Heaven. Divorce was disgraceful, and a woman had to live an honorable, dignified and submissive life in order to have hope of reincarnation into a man. If a woman stayed at the Tokeiji for two or three years, she could leave completely untied to her husband or his family in a thoroughly honorable fashion. Therefore, if Kaoru is raised in such an environment, she is very likely to have a bad preconception of men as abusive creatures, who would only cause harm.

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Chapter One- Danger

Turbulent winds howled through violently shaking treetops.

The round moon glowed brightly for the moment it was freed from behind thick clouds. Just before it plunged the world back into darkness again, the light caught on the bloody colored hair of a young man, crouching on the edge of a forest.

His companion scowled at the sky. "Dammit… we'd been counting on the moon for light…"

The teen shot him a venomous glare, silencing him effectively.

The man held up his hands, smirking in submission. "Fine, fine."

The young man turned his dark eyes back to the building that stood proudly near the forest. The moon peeked out again, just long enough for his sharp eyes to spot the figure standing outside. As he jumped up, he flipped his drawn katana and disappeared with a rush of displaced air.

The man sighed, jumping up to follow him. He despised being sent on a mission with the younger man, since he was always so quiet. _Silent, but deadly…_ He thought sardonically, sprinting across the grass after him. He spotted the glint of metal, and the heavy sound of a body collapsing into another. _The boy is a god… He has to be…_ He thought, catching up to him.

The redhead was gently leaning an unconscious young nun against the wall of the temple. "If you're coming with me, then you'd best be faster, Iizuka." He hissed softly, as the older man realized why the boy had flipped his sword over.

Still young and idealistic… He'll change…

The boy stepped into the temple with all the grace and soundlessness of a cat. Iizuka followed at a step's distance.

They were quick moving through the halls, searching for a single room, the precise location they only had a vague idea of, the teen knocking out anyone who they encountered.

"What are you doing here?" A voice of command came from behind them, startling Iizuka into jumping out of fright. The young man merely turned to stare at her evenly.

"What are you doing here?" The older woman demanded again, hands on her hips.

The boy spoke. "Where is she?" He demanded, voice bordering between polite and urgent.

Her eyes narrowed. "Who is she?"

Iizuka stepped forward to negotiate rationally, but the boy took matters into his own hands.

He lifted the katana. "Take us to her, or I will kill you for being an obstacle."

She lifted her chin. "You think you're the only man who's come here, demanding to see a woman? Threatening to kill me if I don't? What right do you, as men, have here? It is the fault of men that these women are here. Get out!"

There was the sound of screaming from nearby. The woman's eyes widened as she turned. "What's going on?" She demanded of him.

"Where is she? Where is the princess?" He asked, his voice near desperation.

"Why should I…" She trailed off at the sound of more screams. More terrified screams.

"Do you want them all to die? We're here to get her out, because that's who they want! They'll kill her!" Iizuka cut in.

"Who are they? Who are you?" Her eyes were wild, as though she was torn between leaving them to discover the cause of the commotion, or stay with the unwelcome intruders.

"Shinsengumi, Himura?" Iizuka addressed the boy.

"Doubtlessly." He replied quickly, bowing to the woman. "Himura Kenshin. Hirokiri for the Ishin Shishi."

Her eyes widened. "Rebels…"

"Come on, woman!" Iizuka growled.

She glanced to the direction from which the screaming came, then back to the two men. "Come on… hurry!"

The boy sheathed his katana and followed her swift step with his own speed. Iizuka took a moment to realize that they had moved on, and then followed them quickly.

She led them closer to the screaming, then stopped at a shoji that did not stand out at all. She slid it open and hurried in, kneeling next to the futon, shaking the girl that was apparently not sleeping.

"Kaoru-chan! Wake up!"

The girl sat straight up at the sound of the woman's voice. "Mother…" She whispered in concern. She jumped at the sound of the shoji being slammed shut by the younger man, and the metallic sound of his katana being drawn. Her eyes widened. "Men…" She whispered.

"They're coming!" He hissed, seizing a blanket and throwing it over the two women. "Don't make a sound!"

The shoji was opened furiously, and the women heard the sound of several other men entering.

There was the clash of swords, and the screams of death from the lips of falling samurai. The two women felt the vibrations of a man falling just next to the blanket they cowered under.

Kaoru turned her wide eyes to the head nun. "The others…" She whispered almost soundlessly.

The women suppressed a pleased chuckle before responding just as silently. "They were the wives of samurai… they didn't surrender their war chests when they came here, and they all still remember how to swing a katana."

A chilly voice reverberated through the room, freezing Kaoru's heart upon hearing it.

"Has the Ishin Shishi run out of lowly men to do simple rescue missions? Are they so shorthanded, that they must send an assassin to retrieve a mere girl?"

The young man's voice rose. "It would seem that the same is true for the Shinsengumi."

After a very brief instant of absolute silence, there was the hard clash of katana on katana. Kaoru shivered and closed her eyes. The duel was growing so close to them…

"Captain!"

The duel ended immediately. "What is it?" The icy voice demanded.

"It's the men, sir! The women are fighting back. We can't find the girl! We have to retreat!"

"Then give the order to retreat!" The swish of a sword, then the sound of it being clicked back into its sheath. "We'll have to finish this some other time, won't we?"

"I'll be waiting." The boy's voice was cool.

After another moment, where Kaoru's heart pounded furiously, the teenager reached over and pulled the blanket away. "Hurry now… we have to leave before they send reinforcements." He leaned down and wiped the blood off of his sword onto the shirt of a dead man.

The women crawled out, and Mother hugged the girl. "I'm sorry, Kaoru-chan… I wanted to tell you… but I suppose these two will take care of it for you… Get up! You have to leave with them!"

"I don't understand!" She protested, but stood anyway and followed Mother behind a screen. They stepped out a moment later, the girl completely dressed in a plain deep blue kimono. Mother was tightening her purple obi, finishing quickly.

"There's not time to explain, Kaoru-chan…" She handed her a satchel, and helped her fold several spare kimono to place in there. As they slid them in, Mother glanced up at the two men, who were standing impatiently nearby.

"How funny, isn't it? I'm giving over the brightest flower in this temple over to an assassin…"

The boy scowled. The label given to him for his work was obviously one he did not like.

Kaoru stood up, the sack in her hands. "Mother…"

Mother stood and hugged the girl tenderly. "Go with Himura-san…" She turned a glare on the boy. "Take care of her, boy."

His shadowy eyes flashed. "I have every intention of performing my duties perfectly."

She nodded in approval of the boy's answer. As Mother was hugging the young girl, she whispered into her ear. "He is the only one you can trust… trust him, but not the other one…"

The girl nodded very slightly in affirmation. "Why…?"

Mother shook her head. "No time, Kaoru-chan… just go… Go!" She cried to them all.

He stepped over to her quickly and took her arm. "Let's go…" He pulled her along quickly, hurrying out of the temple.

They ran quickly into the forest, not stopping for nearly ten minutes, when they reached a clearing in the trees.

Iizuka collapsed against a tree, and Kaoru yanked her arm away from him.

He turned a glare on her. "Stay close to me."

"What do you want from me?" She hissed.

"To bring you back to your family."

"What do you care about my family? They're dead!" She stalked off towards another tree.

"No, they're not, girl." Iizuka called from his tree.

"My mother came to the Tokeiji when I was a baby! She died because of my father's abuse!" Her ocean-deep eyes were burning with emotion.

The redhead crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you remember any of this?"

"Of course not!" She snapped.

He raised his eyebrows. "Then let me tell you why those men were after you. Your mother is not dead. She is very much alive, and still living with your father. They sent you to that temple in order to keep what would have happened tonight, had we not come for you, from happening. You would have been assassinated. The only heir to your father's new throne as emperor."

"You're lying." She accused angrily.

"I don't lie." He replied evenly.

Kaoru turned her head up to the sky, where the moon was completely gone under thick, dark clouds. "It's not true…" She whispered. "It can't be true…"

A single drop of rain fell on her face.

Then another.

And then, the heavens burst open into a downpour.

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Note: What do you all think? Did you catch that bit of symbolism at the end? If you didn't… that's fine. Please leave me a review and tell me what you thought of it… The new chapter will go up soon! Please review!


	2. Silk

The Samurai Wives

Note: Oi… I went to tour Georgetown University today… now, I'm an intellectual person, I think, but the people there were just… creepy, in that elitist, wealthy way. There was a guy walking behind me and his mother looked at him and asked if he liked the school more than Yale. And what about Harvard? Oh, didn't he just love Princeton? I nearly died listening to them… I'm not so snooty that I would assume that it's okay to say things like that! … oooh… it just kinda undermined my confidence… there was a guy in the office who made me feel a bit better about things, though. I may apply, though the chances of me getting in… eh, well, let's just say that I don't think that they'll take into account all my other attributes. Like traveling abroad. Being trilingual. Things like that… and then… now I'm at my dad's desk at work, typing on his computer, because we're going to be here until seven o'clock tonight, and it's only 3:30. Maybe I'll get a new chapter of 'Voix' done in the meantime. Hopefully.

Disclaimer: Not mine! Don't sue me!

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Chapter Two- Silk

Kaoru dropped her bag onto the futon unceremoniously. She was alone for the first time since she had left the Tokeiji with her 'escorts'. She nearly hissed in rage at the mere memory of those… men. They had taken her away from her home, tried to persuade her into their lies. She clenched her fists, feeling a bit betrayed by Mother.

Maybe they threatened her with us… She thought._ Yes… that's the only explanation… Mother would rather die than hand one of us over to a couple of men. It was a set up. The battle… everything._

Despite how she denied everything, Kaoru knew that their story was, ludicrous yes, but more likely than arranging an attack on the Tokeiji just for her. Why else would they want her, and only her? She sank onto the futon, her kimono torn from the rough travel. She closed her eyes, letting the sleep she had been interrupted from overtake her once again.

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She blinked once. Twice. She rubbed the crust off of her eyelashes as her eyes tried to focus on the figure that was bustling around the room. "Hello?" She croaked, flashing her eyes to the shoji. By her judgment, it was a few hours before sundown.

Not surprising, since she had only arrived at about noon.

The woman turned and smiled. "Oh! You're awake!" She cried, bowing to her deeply. "It's a pleasure to meet you, milady."

Kaoru's first thought shot out of her mouth before she thought better of it. "Are you all this delusional?"

The woman stared up at her in surprise. "I… B-but…" She stuttered, and Kaoru sighed.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking… But I'm not lady."

The woman sighed and continued organizing Kaoru's clothes. "They warned me… Katsura-sama wishes to see you when you're changed."

"Katsura… sama?"

The woman nodded, setting out a kimono. "The man who gave the order to retrieve you."

Oh, now she felt like a thing to be picked up. Kaoru scowled at her.

"Oh, don't look at me like that!" The woman shot at her, beckoning for her to come closer. Kaoru complied reluctantly, and the woman helped her out of her kimono. "Would you like a bath?"

Kaoru nodded numbly as the woman pulled out a yukata and handed it to her. She pulled it on and let the woman lead her to the bath house.

"I'm Kamiya Kaoru... What's your name?" She murmured softly to her.

The woman sighed. "What does it matter?"

"It matters because it's who you are!"

The woman raised an eyebrow to her. "No one cares about people like me."

Kaoru's eyes sparked. "So you're content serving men for the rest of your life? That's just as bad as a geisha! Spending their lives just to entertain men... it's terrible. Women should be held in a higher regard!"

The woman shook her head. "Milady... words like that are dangerous. Don't you want to get reincarnated as a man?"

Kaoru hissed in indignity. "I certainly do not!" She stormed into the bath house and pulled her yukata off forcefully.

The woman shook her head again, sighing. "Your name is not 'Kamiya', so you know, milady."

Kaoru scowled at her general direction. "Go away!"

The woman sighed and started to turn away, then paused. "Chiyo. Murasaki Chiyo." She waited for an answer, which came slowly and hesitantly.

"Thank you... Chiyo-san."

Chiyo sighed and moved back toward the bath house. "Weren't you raised in a nunnery?"

Kaoru sighed and pulled her head back up from the water. "The Tokeiji... yes." She closed her eyes in bitter reminiscence of the temple and the depressed women who had been Kaoru's mentors. She had had friends, of course; children of the women who couldn't bear to leave her offspring behind. But they would leave in time, when their mother was free again. In her more recent years, Kaoru had actually befriended some of the women, who were very near her own age.

Chiyo nodded, realizing exactly what it meant. "Oh..." She whispered.

Kaoru sighed and scrubbed herself clean. She hated the twigs stuck in her hair, and the grime on her face. When she was finished, she stepped out and dried off. Tying the yukata around her waist tightly, she followed Chiyo back into her room.

Slowly dressing in the deep red kimono, Kaoru felt a sense of foreboding. "Are all the people here... men?"

Chiyo nodded. "Everyone except the maids, and some of the geisha that are friends with Katsura-sama. Oh, and-" She stopped, hesitant at mentioning what she had been close to saying.

Kaoru reddened. She had, of course, heard stories from the other women at the Tokeiji of women who could be purchased with the right amount of money. She felt a rush of repulsion. Were women really so willing to sacrifice their everything to men?

Chiyo reddened as well. "They don't come here very often... it's usually the men who go to them..."

In all her sixteen years, Kaoru had never been so stunned at the behavior of women. Mother had never warned her of such things in the outside world, but had Kaoru ever been intended to leave?

The thought occupied her, in realization that it was probable that she would have stayed at the Tokeiji forever. Or at least until someone came to get her.

Who would come to get you? Who would want you? You're just an orphan! She reminded herself forcefully as the black obi went around her waist, tied tightly around her.

She smoothed her clothing and stepped into the courtyard again. Chiyo murmured an apology and scurried off when she spotted the surly teen on the rock.

Kaoru glared at him. "What do you want?" She spat.

He turned a cool glance on her. "I have a name, you know."

She glared right back at him furiously. "I don't care."

"I'd prefer it to just 'you'." He made no move off of his rock. "Himura… Kenshin." He added his first name for her benefit.

She narrowed her eyes. "Kamiya Kaoru."

His eyebrows raised very slightly. "I'm here to get you."

"I will not go with you," She paused for a moment, then. "Himura-san."

"Katsura-san's request." He told her evenly.

She turned away from him. "I'll go myself." She hissed.

He pressed his lips together in disapproval. "I'm supposed to look after you."

"I have no need of a man looking after me!" She cried angrily.

He stepped off his rock calmly. "It's still my job." He told her.

"I don't care." Her voice was full of loathing.

He turned, his face staying frozen blankly, and started out of the courtyard. "Just remember, milady, that I am the one who must ensure that you stay alive. Katsura-san will tell you. So enjoy your moments alone, but be cautious. Unless I am close enough to hear your screaming, I will not be able to help you." His eyes darkened considerably. "And then you will be dead."

She glared at him furiously as he left the courtyard through the gate. Once he was out, the wind took control and tore at her hair. She felt her ribbon being loosened, and finally taken by the gale. She clutched at her hair, trying to keep it in her control as she watched the ribbon take flight toward the sky.

Closing her turbulent eyes, she turned back toward the inn, stepping back inside. She would have to ask someone to take her to see this Katsura.

Kenshin turned his eyes up to the late afternoon sun. She was going to be difficult to take care of. He had requested that Katsura have someone else do the babysitting, but the man had refused.

"Himura… it's too dangerous too leave her in anyone else's care. She'd be assassinated in no time, what-so-ever." Katsura's voice was deep and soothing.

"Katsura-san, won't this interfere with my duties to you?"

Katsura shook his head. "You will know the ways that any attacker may think. I would rather you protect her."

Kenshin had simply given up on the argument, choosing instead to bear the assignment. Just as he did for all the other unpalatable assignments that always seemed to fall to him. It just wasn't fair really, and it irritated him. He was simply too tired of the war to care anymore.

He looked up when something blocked out the sun, then collapsed when the wind stopped its great blowing. The long strip of silk fell slowly, floating down to him. Kenshin stretched out his hand, snatching it out of the air.

The smooth feel of the silk stunned him. He had never, in his memory, touched silk. It felt like the breeze and flowed with the grace of water. His calloused fingers tightened on it. It was such a precious item, however strange it was. He lifted it to his face and inhaled the scent of the silk. A smell he didn't recognize, but most certainly floral. He would ask Ikumatsu about that later. He had walked through the geisha district before, expertly hiding his fascination with the fabric. Now he could feel it between his own fingers.

He turned his face back up the sun, noting that he only had a few more hours of daylight left. Tucking the ribbon into his gi, he stepped back into the courtyard. The young princess was no longer within the courtyard, and he stepped back into the building.

Before he closed the shoji, he gave the evening sky a brief, wistful glance.

He was certain that there would be problems with the girl. Soon.

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Note: So… I'm still at my dad's office… halfway through the chapter, I got up and went to find the vending machine to get something to drink. Except, while wandering down the (wrong) hall, I realized that it _probably_ wasn't a great idea to be wandering around a military complex. Especially since I don't have a driver's permit, or any kind of photo identification (other than my student exchange card, that expired today. And I don't think that would even work) on me that would prove that I am _me_, and with my dad, and not a terrorist. Or a stupid kid just looking for something to drink. I even passed a sign (when in the right hall, but I didn't go down far enough) that was warning passersby that it was a place for ONLY certified personnel. Deciding that I didn't really _want_ to be shot for wandering around, I went back to his desk… where I stayed until he got out of his meeting, and showed me where the machines were. Of course, then the stupid milk machine wouldn't take my money, so I couldn't get my milk. T.T But, I got lemonade, introduced to about half the building, and then left back alone. ::hugs everyone:: I love you all! ::cries:: Some of you wrote me these big, long, heartfelt reviews at the end of Puppeteers… I nearly cried myself! Yeah, Puppeteers was… so very fun… and… now (so far) some of you are coming here! ::bounces:: I can't thank you all enough for it… even Hiro thanks you!

Hiro: ::glances at them, wide-eyed:: Uh… uh… yeah…

Anyway, he's being an excellent muse… Not sure what he does yet… but he does a good job inspiring me… I don't even know how or why… but he does… ::gives everyone big hugs:: I promise this plot will thicken out some more… I promise… Next chapter… See you then! Please review! ::chokes on her lemonade::


	3. Insecure

The Samurai Wives

Note: Meep! This trip of mine is turning into something like an adventure! Big dogs at my dad's house, the college tours, the military complex, NYC… and then this morning. After barely surviving NYC, we drove until 2 in the morning, and ended up in Mystic, Connecticut. I have never been happier to be in a hotel… and it was a very nice hotel, to boot. We woke up, left, and was going to go to Providence and poke around Brown University, and then go on to Salem. And some _idiot_ stopped in the middle of the road. My dad swerved to miss them…

And we took out three posts.

I figured out, considering speed, distance, size, etc., that my older sister and dad would have been dead or critically injured if we had hit the idiot, and my little sister and I wouldn't have been much better. IF we had hit him. Instead, our poor little car was totaled, and we ended up renting a car… but we're going to Salem now! Woohoo! ::does her stupid dance:: Damn, you'd think I'd be a bit more appreciative of life, having made it through yet another brush with death.

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Chapter Three- Insecure

Kaoru slipped into her room. The moon was brilliant, shining through the shoji, though it was waning. She sighed in relief, removing her wrap and folding it neatly.

It seemed that her midnight excursions were yet to be discovered.

She tugged at the knot of her obi, letting it fall into her waiting hands. She folded it slowly, setting it on top of the wrap, and beginning to pull off her kimono.

"Do you honestly wish to die?"

Kaoru jumped, pulling her kimono back around her tightly. She knew that voice. Turning around, her face contorted with fury. "How dare you come into a lady's room? And I was undressing! Don't you even have the decency to turn away when a woman is changing?" She demanded of the boy, who was leaning comfortably against the wall, watching her calmly.

"I have no interest in your body, if that's what you imply. I was told to look after you, but you simply won't let me keep you alive." He stood up, picking up the katana that was lying next to him.

She took a step back, holding her kimono on even tighter. "Stay away from me." She hissed. Most of the men in the Ishin Shishi obeyed Katsura's request to leave her alone because of her insecurity, so telling him to do so would work, in her experience.

His eyebrows rose. "I would, if I were to have things my way. But I have been told to protect you, which you are making increasingly difficult." His hands were tightly gripping the katana. "What were you doing?"

"If it were anything concerning you, I would be sure to inform you."

"I don't have time for your immaturity. If you dropped information concerning this group, then it will circulate into the ears of the Shinsengumi." His tone was grave. "They were the ones who came to your beloved temple, and attacked your fellows." He held out a piece of rice paper. "The names of the ones who died, while they were looking for you. Iizuka-san's people managed to recover their names and bodies. If you desire, I will escort you to a temple to pray for their departed souls in the morning."

She took it, her hands shaking. She hadn't realized that some of the women had died.

A trick… Her mind told her darkly, but something in the boy's tone told her that he was not making anything up.

"I would also suggest that you refrain from leaving without my company. The Shinsengumi holds no qualms in killing you, and it seems that they have Okita Souji and Saitou Hajime looking for you. They're very serious about you, and destroying you." He stepped to the shoji, and then turned back to her. "Other than a warning, there is nothing I can do for you."

She glared at him. "I don't want your help."

"Well, I'd rather not be offering it to you."

"I hate you." She spat contemptuously.

"I'm fairly certain that you do. But that doesn't change my duty." He slid the shoji open and stepped out, slamming it shut behind him.

She clenched her fists. She had never met anyone so infuriating in her entire life. Her kimono fell open slightly as she turned around and continued with undressing.

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The first light of morning shone directly into Kaoru's eyes when she woke in the morning, keeping her from sleeping later than the sun apparently desired. She pulled her cover away, climbing out of the bed.

Chiyo was in her room momentarily, knowing that she would be awake by then. The girl was quiet as she helped Kaoru dress slowly.

"Chiyo-san… is something wrong?" Her voice was quiet.

Chiyo shook her head, but did not smile. "No, Kaoru-sama."

Kaoru did not believe the girl, and as she finished tying her obi, Kaoru turned to her.

"Chiyo-san… something is wrong… what is it?"

Chiyo bit her lip. "Kaoru-sama… it's just that…" She shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Kaoru was suddenly worried. "What happened?"

Chiyo stared at her hands, as she twisted them. "It's just… it's happened before… some of the men are a bit…" She shook her head. "It's nothing to be worried about."

Kaoru seized her arm. "What did they do? Are you hurt? Did they… they…" Kaoru couldn't bring herself to finish the question.

Chiyo shook her head. "They just… said some things… made to touch me…"

Kaoru felt her temper flare. Men. Even here she could see their cruelty showing, just as it had in the Tokeiji. "Chiyo-san! You can't let them get away with it!"

Chiyo fidgeted. "I can't, Kaoru-sama."

"We can't let them do this to you! Chiyo-san, I saw the women at the temple… I won't let it happen to you!"

Chiyo smiled gratefully. "I appreciate it, Kaoru-sama… but there's nothing I, or you, can do."

Kaoru took the girl's hand forcefully. "Fine then… but I can think of someone who may be able to."

Chiyo's eyes widened. "No! Not Katsura-sama… it's not so bad! I…" Chiyo was obviously terrified, but Kaoru shook her head.

"No, not Katsura. Just come on…" She opened the shoji and pulled her out. "Himura-san!" She called, as Chiyo cowered.

"Himura!" She called again as the teen stepped out of a room, scowling.

"Is there something you need that requires waking me up?" His voice was cool, but obviously irate.

Kaoru almost smirked. Her bodyguard was also evidently not a morning person. "If I have to put up with you, then I want a favor."

He was wearing his wakizashi and uniform. "What is it?"

"Chiyo-san has had unpleasant attentions from some of your comrades. I would like it if you were to ensure that it does not happen again."

Kenshin stifled a sigh. He turned to the girl who was cowering behind _that_ girl. "Who was it?" He asked coldly, and she squeaked and stepped away from him, muttering protests.

Kaoru glared at him. "You're not helping Chiyo-san's problems at all."

He resisted the urge to hit the girl. Or at least roll his eyes. _Why did I have to get stuck with the only girl her age with the temperament of an ox?_ He silently cursed the gods.

"Chiyo-san, who was it?" The sun was hurting his eyes, and his head pounded miserably.

The girl stared at him fearfully, then peeked around Kaoru. "K-Kino-san… and…" She hid her face again.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow. "And Iizuka?"

Her eyes snapped up. "H-hai… How did you know?"

"He and Kino are excellent friends when it comes to things like your case. I believe they went drinking last night…" At the look on her face, and the expectant glare on Kaoru's, he gave in. "I will… speak to them."

Kaoru felt triumphant. Though she felt that he would not be using words to speak to them, but rather be communicating his frustrations upon them with one or both of his blades, she did not mind at all.

Her task was accomplished.

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Note: Let me tell you-Salem is a strange place. They only have bed and breakfasts, but no hotels. One Starbucks, but at least 8 Dunkin Donuts. Ah... such bittersweet weirdness that blooms in this tiny town... at least I got the update up... Please review! (Actually, I would write more, but it's 11:30, and my sister wants me OFF the computer)


	4. Silence

The Samurai Wives

Note: Damn… I forgot my disclaimer last time… Well… there's not much to say this time, except that I'm a little surprised… 'Voix', while being started earlier yes, is actually doing a bit better than this story… Now, I'm not complaining at all, since this story will be longer, and simply is taking its time getting to the mushy… stuff. This story is also promising to be very exciting and… well… a bit violent. No problem-o, ne? I have hopes for both stories, and they're going in different directions right now… ::bounces:: I'm excited!

Historical Note (#2): In case no one has noticed, I have done some major history-tweaking here. So… here's another history lesson to put you on track. The Meiji Era was named for the Emperor Meiji, who originally was an emperor whose 'empire' ruled Kyoto. Since Japan was in its feudal era until Western influence came about with the coming of the Black Ships, all the country was split up with different rulers. (The actual revolutions lasted about 25 years, from the coming of the Black Ships, all the way up to around the beginning of the series. Kaoru actually mentions that her father was killed in one of the recent wars when she tells Kenshin that she lives on her own.) The war in which Kenshin took part in was the fight between those who supported the shogun, who had recently relinquished his throne to the 14-year-old Emperor Meiji, and those who were fighting to keep the new emperor in power, because of the reforms he would bring about. But the major bit of tweaking here is not in Kaoru's age, but in the _Emperor's. _Since he was fourteen when he took power, he was certainly not old enough to have children, so this plot would have fallen through. Therefore, I changed history in order to make things possible… So I am fully aware of all the incorrect parts of history used in this story.

Disclaimer: Not mine! Don't sue!

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Chapter Four- Silence

_If women were not the reason that the human race progresses,_ Kenshin thought, _then I would long ago have killed each and every one of them. _

Kaoru was smiling gaily, flitting around the market, glowing at the sight of all the things that the merchants had on display. He only scowled and seized her hand.

"I thought you were going to the temple to pray." He hissed into her ear.

She pouted. "I wanted to take a look around… You and your stupid group have had me holed up in that inn for days."

He merely glared at her, warning her to keep silent. "Women are to not to be heard… nor seen, if at all possible."

Her own eyebrows shot up, an expression she had picked up from him. "I thought you were supposed to be for reform."

"I am… but I am also beginning to think that those who made such rules had you in mind… And then I would not disagree with them."

She scowled at him. She could not agree that all men were the same anymore; Himura had made sure of that. Other men were either lecherous, cruel, evil, or a mix of them all, but not he. He could be slightly temperamental, but usually simply stayed quiet and did his duty. He never treated her cruelly, nor did he ever act in such a way that she felt nervous being around him. She always felt confident around him, in such a way that she did not fear offering him sarcastic retorts, and did not mind his, however subtle and icy, teasing.

"Let's go to the temple." She took his hand. "There… you won't loose me, and you can take me there."

He shook his head, offering her another glare. "Make it quick when we make it there. I would like to get back to the inn soon."

A self-satisfied smile crossed her face as she realized that he had not removed his hand from hers.

As they arrived to the temple, Himura nearly dragged her up the stairs, causing her to run in order to keep up. At the top, she yanked her hand from his and followed him.

Kneeling at the shrine, Kaoru was surprised to find the red-haired young man kneeling next to her, setting his katana to the side. She chose not to speak to him, instead saying her prayers for the parted souls of the women in the Tokeiji.

When she was finished, she stood up. Himura was standing with her, sliding the long sword into the ties of his hakama.

"Are you finished?" He asked, and she noticed his voice was quieter than usual.

She nodded, and waited until they were further away from the temple before she spoke, possibly for the first time, kindly to him.

"Whom were you praying for?"

His eyes moved to hers, and, for a moment, she saw a flash of light in his eyes before they plunged back into their shadowy color. He looked back to the street as they walked.

"Many people."

She paused. "Wait…" She whispered, leaning down to fix her sandal, which had just broken.

He stopped and watched her quietly, casting his eyes around to check the streets for any sign of peculiar behavior.

As she messed with her sandal strap, she had the feeling that he had been praying for those he had killed. She wondered if he remembered every face he killed, as she would have.

"Himura-san?" She asked, standing straight again. She smoothed her kimono gently.

"What?" He asked her evenly. She knew he would not lie to her- she had given him no reason to do so, and he had given her none to make her believe he would.

"Am I really… who you say I am?"

He sighed. "Katsura-san says that you are… I don't know for sure. I believe you may very well be… but what does the son of a farmer know?" The last of his sentence felt bitter to her, and she followed him as he set off down the street.

"You cannot be the son of a farmer. You have a last name… You are a samurai…"

He turned a cool glare on her. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Kaoru couldn't help but be curious of the boy; he was so very different from the men that the women had described when she was growing up. She offered him a smile, which he did not return.

"It doesn't matter."

"Fine!" Anger spiked up in her, and she stared at him. What had she been thinking? He was still a man, and it didn't matter what _kind_ of man he was; he was still going to be untrustworthy. She turned away and followed him as he strode down the street shamelessly.

They walked in silence, feet drumming against the Kyoto ground. She was seething at her own stupidity, for trusting that a man may have been kind; he was silent in reminiscence.

"My parents died when I was a boy. I was sold to slave traders to pay their debts…"

Her head snapped up, eyes rushing to meet his. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You asked. Now are you going to listen?"

She nodded, walking in step with him.

"We were attacked, and nearly everyone in the caravan was killed. I was spared by the kindness of a passing swordsman, who left me so that I would go to the next town. A week later, he came upon me again, and offered to take me in. From him… I learned the art of killing. And then I came here… Katsura-san brought me here as his assassin."

Kaoru had the impression that there was more to it than he was letting on, but she was simply surprised he had offered so much of his past to her. He was usually such a guarded person. "Oh…" She whispered softly. "I'm sorry."

"It's nothing you should worry about. It's in the past." He opened the gate for her, and she stepped into the courtyard of the inn. He brushed past her, sliding off his sandals as he stepped onto the porch.

She slid off her sandals after he had, and followed him into a room, which was set up for a business meeting- or whatever similar thing groups like the Ishin Shishi had.

Katsura, a man Kaoru had only met once, was waiting for him, and did not object when Kaoru slipped inside. He glanced at the two of them. "How did the trip to the temple go?"

Kaoru nodded. "It was good to pray for my friends." She told him calmly.

Katsura nodded and turned to Himura expectantly. Kenshin sighed.

"We're being watched. I'm certain Saitou is well aware of her presence, and they will spare no time in killing her if they find her here."

Katsura gave him a brief glare, then offered an apologetic glance to her. "I apologize for his bluntness… Himura-san… I suggest practicing your tact."

Kenshin scoffed and stood, moving to the shoji.

Kaoru jumped up. "Wait!" He turned calmly and she bowed to Katsura. "Goodbye, Katsura-san… May I go with you, Himura-san?"

She swore he would have blinked in complete confusion if not for the cool demeanor he always kept. "Do what you like."

She stepped toward the shoji and followed him from the room.

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Note: So… things are getting interesting… All set up for the future chapters… all ready for the action to come… and all other things that are coming… Yes… she is warming up to him… a bit… not a lot… but some. ::grins:: But it's time to go to sleep for me! We've stopped for the night, and I'm gonna be home tomorrow… Late, so I can get this up, and maybe another chapter… maybe… looks as though 'Voix' isn't going to be done… so… well… I'll have more projects… Please review!


	5. Monster

The Samurai Wives  
  
Note: Yeah... it's been a couple days... things are certainly going to be more irregular when it comes to updates... Anyway... I'm going to be 16 in fifteen days! Yay for me! The 24th is coming up... not that I'll be receiving my gift from my parents then... they already gave it to me. ::coughs:: I don't know how we afforded it... but we did. My parents bought me a Kawasaki Ninja. A motorcycle. I have to wait until Christmas before I can get the permit, though. I'm not complaining though... it's absolutely gorgeous. And I have no idea how we managed to pay for it... I'm excited though...  
  
For the person who asked (I can't go on ff.net to see who, but I did get the review alert... and deleted it by mistake): Tact is... um... I'm bad at this... being tactless is what Kenshin was being... He was telling Katsura that it was likely that Kaoru would be killed, because they were being watched, and she was in the room... meaning that she probably would be upset by it... Katsura was warning him to 'work on his tact' because he wasn't being considerate of how she would feel about it. If someone else has a better definition...  
  
Disclaimer: I only own the plot of this story alone! Don't sue me!  
  
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Chapter Five- Monster  
  
"I thought you wanted to go out." The assassin was growing more frustrated with Kaoru than ever.  
  
She crossed her arms over herself. "It's too cold!" She protested, keeping her kimono tight around her. "It's raining, and cold."  
  
"But you said you wanted to go pray."  
  
"I changed my mind!"  
  
The scowl on his face grew darker as Kenshin crossed his own arms.  
  
"Besides... The Shinsengumi might be looking for me even more!"  
  
"That never bothered you before."  
  
"The rain bothers me."  
  
"Will you just make up your mind? Just once, and then keep it that way?"  
  
The rain beat on the roof of the inn as the two argued. Katsura paused outside the open shoji, watched them for a moment, then sighed and continued walking.  
  
Ikumatsu smiled at him from his side. "They really do liven up the place, don't they?"  
  
Katsura shook his head. "If I didn't know better about him, he would seem so normal... they fight about some of the most ridiculous things... And he never was like that before she came along."  
  
She fought a smile. "Does it strike you as a bad thing?"  
  
"No... just strange."  
  
"Not to me."  
  
"It wouldn't."  
  
Ikumatsu's smile bloomed. "This place is very dark... it's nice to have the youth bringing it to life."  
  
"Neither of them really are young. They've both grown up young."  
  
"They certainly don't act that way around one another."  
  
((()))  
  
Kaoru sighed as Kenshin beat her for the fifth time in shogi. "Is it an army thing?"  
  
"What?" He asked, looking back up at her.  
  
"Being able to play shogi so well. Is it something related to you being in the army?"  
  
"I'm not in the army."  
  
"Then what do you call this?" She waved her hand around the room.  
  
"I call it a group of men who want to change the world." He turned back down to the board, where they began a new game.  
  
"Oh, really?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.  
  
"That's all we are. Most are of noble lineage... none knowing mine."  
  
"Doesn't Katsura-san know?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Don't you think he ought to know?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Do you say anything but 'no'?"  
  
"No."  
  
Kaoru stared at him for a moment, then started to laugh.  
  
He looked up at her, one eyebrow raised. "What is it?"  
  
She shook her head, slowly halting the laugh, but her smile faded very slowly. "You know... I never thought a man would make me laugh."  
  
"I'm not really a man." He stared back down at the board.  
  
"Then what are you?"  
  
"A monster."  
  
"No... if you're a monster, then what are the men who treated their wives so terribly that they had to run away to the Tokeiji?" Her eyes bored into his skull.  
  
"Just men. Just samurai. And the women just the wives of samurai."  
  
She stared at him, and then down at the board. "I don't think you're a monster."  
  
"You will... soon enough."  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
"Tsukino Hiro-san is looking after you tonight."  
  
Her head jerked up at him. "What?"  
  
"Tsukino Hi-"  
  
"I understood that... but why?" Tsukino-san was a newer member of the group. A samurai of excellent blood, Kaoru knew, but a regular coward. He had joined the group for ideological reasons, but he did not have the bravery required of a soldier... especially one faced with the perils of the war.  
  
Kenshin stood up.  
  
"Himura-san! Tell me!"  
  
He stared down at her. "I am a monster... tonight I am required to do monstrous things."  
  
"But what if something happens tonight? Hiro-san is not exactly one I would like to depend on."  
  
"I sincerely doubt anything will happen." He turned away, stepping back to the shoji. The game sat, forgotten, on the floor.  
  
"Himura-san!" She stood. "What if something does?"  
  
He sighed. "I cannot take you with me."  
  
"I'm not asking you to." She shot back. "I don't want to see people die."  
  
"Then deal with Tsukino-san." He turned to the shoji and slid it open.  
  
She growled in frustration. She had, over the several weeks under his protection, come to rely on the constant protection of the temperamental assassin. He had already saved her twice, not even counting the time he had come just in time to remove her from the Tokeiji. "Oh... hold on!"  
  
He stopped outside the door, waiting patiently for her to catch up.  
  
The rain was still coming down hard, and she pulled her kimono tightly around her. "I don't see why you have to be so damn irritable." She mumbled.  
  
He sighed. "Just come on..." He stepped into the hall for dinner.  
  
"Himura! Are you ready?" Iizuka's voice cut through the din to them.  
  
He scowled, but nodded. "Come on." He pulled her over to Hiro. "Tsukino- san... This is her."  
  
She yanked her arm from his tight grip. "Thank you, Himura-san." She bowed to the black haired man, who was only slightly taller than Kenshin.  
  
He nodded and bowed to her deeply. "Milady... it's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
She pressed her lips together. "Likewise... I'm sure."  
  
Kenshin sighed and stepped over to Iizuka. "She's worried something will happen tonight."  
  
Iizuka shook his head and laughed. "Don't blame her, myself."  
  
Kenshin scowled. "Whatever you say... she may have good reason to be worried. She usually had a sense about these things."  
  
"Are you backing out of the job?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then let's go."  
  
Kenshin took one last, quick, glance back at the girl before turning to follow Iizuka.  
  
((()))  
  
Kaoru paced her room.  
  
It was late. Very late. And Kenshin still wasn't back from his job.  
  
Hiro was sitting outside her room, supposedly keeping watch. But she could hear the steady sound of his breathing, telling her that even he was asleep.  
  
How late is it, anyway? She thought, her tension mounting as time passed.  
  
The sound of Hiro jerking awake with a muted shout made her jump and turn to the shoji, looking for a weapon. She heard Hiro running down the hallway, suddenly very awake.  
  
The shoji opened slowly.  
  
"Kenshin?" She nearly hit herself for the slip of tongue. "Is that you?"  
  
His high-set ponytail sagged over his shoulder as he bent, breathing slowly in order to catch his breath. "Come on... we have to get you out of here... now."  
  
"What's going on?" She was at his side. As she touched him, she became very aware of the sticky liquid that was all over him. She leaned forward, and in the moonlight she could tell.  
  
He was covered in blood.  
  
"Shinsengumi... Tsukino is rousing Katsura-san... sounding the alarm. But I have to get you out of here." He took her hand and pulled her out of the room.  
  
She was suddenly unwilling to go with him, for all the blood that covered him. "Let me go!" She cried, pulling away from him as his words from earlier in the day rang through her head.  
  
"You will... soon enough."  
  
He turned to her. "I told you... I am a monster... but you have to trust me."  
  
She covered her face with her hands and cowered against the wall.  
  
"Kaoru! We don't have time for this!" He cried, and she could hear his katana being drawn. "I'm not going to kill you."  
  
The sound of the entire inn awakening assaulted her ears.  
  
"Himura! Get her out of here!" Katsura's voice filled her ears, and she pulled her hands away from her face to stare up at him, eyes stricken and full of fear.  
  
There was Kenshin, still covered in blood, but now she could see the wound on his shoulder, from which most of the blood was seeping out of. On his cheek was a long slash, doubtlessly made by his victim in a feeble attempt to remove him from the world of the living. She looked away from him, noting that she could not hear the words he was yelling to Katsura.  
  
Two strong arms seized her and pulled her to her feet. She blinked up at Katsura.  
  
"Go with him. He is not going to hurt you. Didn't you trust him?"  
  
She nodded numbly.  
  
"He is no different now than ever, except when he's around you. I need you to make sure he makes it out okay. Understand?"  
  
She nodded again.  
  
"Good. Now go!" He pushed her into him and turned to dash into another room.  
  
Whatever had been making Kenshin's voice mute to her ears was gone, and he was pulling her down the hallway.  
  
"Come on!"  
  
"You're hurt!"  
  
"I know that, just come on!" They burst out of the inn, into the street, where Iizuka was waiting.  
  
"Are you two ready?" He asked evenly.  
  
Kaoru recoiled. "He's not coming, is he?"  
  
"Just to get us out of the city." Kenshin told her, pulling her along as they followed the man through the streets.  
  
They navigated the streets quickly. Kaoru felt a stitch growing in her side, and she moaned in pain, stumbling and falling back.  
  
Kenshin seized her, sweeping her into his arms and continuing to run.  
  
"Put me down!" She hissed, trying to push out of his grasp, but he turned a silencing glare on her.  
  
"The assassin!" A voice broke through the night, and Kenshin stopped.  
  
"Shit." He growled, setting her to the ground and drawing his katana again.  
  
A short, brown haired man stepped out of the shadows. Kaoru recognized the uniform. "Shinsengumi..." She whispered faintly.  
  
"Okita Souji..." Kenshin muttered to her. "Where is he?"  
  
Another even voice reached them. One Kaoru recognized from the night Kenshin had come to the Tokeiji. "Me?"  
  
"Saitou-san..." Kenshin's voice dropped even lower.  
  
The two advanced slowly.  
  
"No, Okita-san... Not in your condition. Stay back." Saitou ordered coolly, and the man protested, but complied.  
  
Kenshin pushed Kaoru behind him. "Stay back... out of the way..."  
  
She nodded, falling back away from him, swallowing the lump that had appeared in her throat.  
  
They raised their swords.  
  
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Note: Damn... this chapter got long too... oh well... next chapter will probably be written... tomorrow or so... and that's it until Monday, probably. Yeah... I have to follow somewhat of the same schedule as school, except there's times my mom might be home... never know... oh well... See you next time! 


	6. Silence

The Samurai Wives  
  
Note: Between kitty-sitting a kitten that's the equivalent of a two-year- old, and my mom randomly deciding to take half the week off... well... my plan for 'two updates a week' got smashed. Dammit. Maybe next week... but I'm bleeding now, and it hurts. I have kitty scratches! Okay... Yeah, I'm done complaining.  
  
Now, a couple chapters back (I think), someone asked if Kaoru was 7 or 8. The answer, if you haven't already figured out, is no. She's actually around Kenshin's age, about 16 or 17, though he is a bit older than her. The age difference is really only about a year or two here, as opposed to the ten-year age gap between the two in the series. Kenshin is still an assassin (seeing as I completely cut Tomoe out of the plot), though he does act in battle... occasionally. I just don't talk about it here in the earlier chapters. Since he's about 18/19, yes, that does mean he's at the end of his career. And, no, I'm not re-writing 'Trust' or 'Betrayal', contrary to how it seems in this chapter. You'll actually find that there are huge differences (The first being that there's no Tomoe!). If people have issues with it (and I hope no one does...), well... nyeh.  
  
Disclaimer: ::coughcough:: Ahem... I own only the plot of this story, and any characters I have created for the benefit of this story... Just... not RK. Don't sue me.  
  
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Chapter Six- Silence  
  
Kaoru breathed heavily as the night air pressed against her lungs painfully.  
  
I can't breathe... She thought, flattening herself against the wall of a building. The sound of swords clashing assaulted her ears as she crumpled to the ground.  
  
"Get up." Iizuka's voice was quiet, but his eyes never left the battle unfolding in front of them.  
  
She pulled herself up, keeping her distance from him.  
  
"I don't think he's going to stay in this fight... you have to be ready to run. Keep on your feet."  
  
She shuddered and yanked her arm away from him when he set it on her. "I will." She hissed. "Don't touch me."  
  
There was the loud screech of steel sliding down steel as Kenshin slid his sword away down Saitou's, sheathed it as he turned, and ran, seizing Kaoru's hand and darting into an alley.  
  
Buildings flashed past, and Kaoru felt her feet pounding against the ground in time with his. Her heart thumped in fear as adrenalin hit her blood. Blood...  
  
Kenshin was still covered in it, but he didn't seem to notice. He was dragging her through a labyrinth of streets and alleys so twisted that Kaoru had hopelessly lost her way. She stumbled on a rock, and he pulled her up before she met the ground.  
  
"Keep running!"  
  
She nodded numbly, turning her attention back on the street. The city was alive with sound. Screaming, swords clashing. The hammering of her feet on the ground as she ran. Why couldn't she hear Kenshin as he ran?  
  
Suddenly, she looked around to find the buildings dissipating into dojo after dojo. She had never known that there could be so many schools... One for martial arts, but so many for swords. She felt the sudden urge to ask Kenshin which of these was his school, but suppressed it when they burst out into a field.  
  
Her sandal caught on another stone, and she tripped, rolling down the slight decline in the ground. She could no longer summon the strength to keep running, simply laying on her back, facing the starless, moonless sky.  
  
"I can't run anymore... If... if they come here to kill me... well... I don't care anymore... As long as I don't have to run..."  
  
He collapsed next to her. "You don't have to... They're still in the city..."  
  
His breathing was shallow, she realized. "Oh!" She leaped up with a sudden burst of energy. "You're still hurt..." She leaned over and prodded his shoulder gently, earning herself a pained hiss when he flinched and pulled away.  
  
"Leave it!" He growled, pulling his arm away from her.  
  
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine! And when you bleed to death because you were too stubborn to let me treat your wound, then I'll just laugh at you."  
  
"And be stuck with Iizuka." He shot back.  
  
She glared at him and sunk back into the tall grass. "Where is he, anyway?"  
  
"He's slow."  
  
"It's not nice to talk about a man behind his back, Himura." Iizuka laughed, striding up to the two of them.  
  
Kenshin stood. "Let's go. Where is this place we're supposed to stay?"  
  
"I'll get you part of the way there... then you'll be able to find it on your own. Only about a day's walk from the city."  
  
He scoffed. "Come on. Get up... We may be out of the city, but they're likely to follow us anyway."  
  
Kaoru stumbled to her feet, her feet crying in objection. "A day's walk?"  
  
Iizuka nodded. "And I'm only taking you halfway. I have to get back and see who else is around."  
  
Kaoru fought back her long groan and followed the two men.  
  
((()))  
  
Hours later, she fell against the strong trunk of a huge tree. The young dawn was filling the sky beyond the trees that surrounded her. "How much further?" She called over to Kenshin, who was touching one of the trees gently.  
  
Iizuka laughed, the sound grating against both her nerves and her ears. "Is the little princess getting tired?"  
  
Unladylike words crossed her mind, and she bit her tongue to keep them from falling out. Instead, she made herself comfortable against the tree, ignoring him.  
  
Kenshin sighed. "I'll be back." He was touching his clothes, checking where all the bloodstains were. He left them alone, and Kaoru shivered. The early morning was suddenly very cold.  
  
She curled up, letting her eyes close. Somnolence washed over her suddenly, wiping away her exhaustion.  
  
Seconds, moments, or perhaps hours later, her eyes snapped open. The pressure on her arm woke her, and fear flooded her veins. She opened her mouth to scream, only to have a rough hand clamped over it.  
  
"Be quiet, girl!"  
  
She swallowed, feeling herself growing faint.  
  
No...I... What am I going to do? She thought fleetingly, struggling against the older man's unwavering grasp. Iizuka was strong, she could allow herself to realize. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. There was nothing she could do... Nothing...  
  
She closed her eyes, a tear rolling down her cheek.  
  
The rough hand was fumbling with her obi. She shuddered, feeling consciousness ebb away.  
  
You were right, Mother, not to trust him... The thought crossed her mind as she struggled with her hands, pounding against him.  
  
The loud swish, then thud, of steel flying through the air, and embedding itself into the tree next to them was the first sound she heard, bringing her senses crashing back.  
  
Kenshin stood at the very edge of the clearing, the sheath of his wakizashi empty. Iizuka fell back in fear, and she stared up at the blade that was merely a few inches from her head.  
  
Kenshin stalked over to them, drawing his katana. "What were you doing?" He hissed lowly to Iizuka, who was backing away carefully.  
  
"Hey... don't do anything you're going to regret..." Iizuka's warning was quiet, but fearful.  
  
Kenshin yanked his wakizashi from the trunk of the tree. "Don't worry. I won't."  
  
"I mean it, Himura!"  
  
Kenshin raised his katana. "You son of a-"  
  
"She's just a woman! What does it matter?! It's not as though anyone will know, or care!"  
  
Kenshin pressed the blade of his katana into the man's neck. "She's going to know, you slimy bastard." He left a small nick in the man's throat. "You've told me where the house is. I think it would be better if you went back to the city." He turned, sheathing both blades. "Go."  
  
Iizuka stumbled back from the angry teen, back into the thick of the forests.  
  
Kenshin turned his head up to Kaoru. "Are you okay?" He kneeled next to her, and she noted that his hair was wet.  
  
She stared at him for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I... You came... before he could..." She shuddered as a sob shook her body. She screamed and cried, curling up into a tight ball.  
  
She cried out when his hands reached over to rub her back comfortingly. He pulled away quickly, murmuring an apology. "We have to go soon..."  
  
She nodded, pulling herself to her feet. "Why...?" She whispered.  
  
"Why what?"  
  
"You... would you have killed him?"  
  
"If it wouldn't anger Katsura-san, I would have."  
  
"Why?" She stared at him with blurry, wet eyes.  
  
He mumbled something and motioned for her to follow. "Let's go."  
  
She watched him as he took a couple steps, then looked back to her. "Come on... we can make it to this house by afternoon if we hurry."  
  
His clothes were mussed, as if pulled on in a hurry. His hair was limp and wet, spread over his shoulders, untied. She had never, even after waking him, seen him so unkempt.  
  
"Were you... bathing?" The question burst out the same instant she thought it. She clapped her hands over her mouth, cursing her tongue for moving of its own accord.  
  
He turned around, staring at her. "Yes." He finally managed.  
  
"What about your clothes... Were you going to wash them?"  
  
He sighed. "Yes, I was. But there's supposed to be a change of clothes at the house. Let's just keep going."  
  
She nodded, silent for another moment, or another hour, she couldn't tell anymore. The silence pressed against her, and she relished in it.  
  
"Ne, Himura-san?"  
  
"Kenshin."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You know what my name is. Use it."  
  
She blinked. He was asking her to call him by... his first name?  
  
"Ah... Kenshin..." She began slowly. "How did you know?"  
  
There was a long pause, as though he was trying to choose his words carefully. "You screamed."  
  
She paused, and then followed him quickly. She had begun to scream... but had been cut off... "I never got a chance to scream." She pointed out to him.  
  
"I heard you scream." He replied evenly.  
  
"But I'm sure I didn't."  
  
"And I heard you scream, so I came. That's all I know, okay?"  
  
She sighed and stared up to the sky, where noon had come and gone without her knowledge. The sounds of the world were gone, until Kenshin stopped her.  
  
"I think we're here..."  
  
She blinked, then stared up the incline of the hills. At the top sat a small house looking out over the mountain. She nodded and stepped onto the hill.  
  
"Well... let's get up there then..." She muttered, suddenly aware of the dirt that stuck to her skin, and the rips in her kimono. "And can I take a bath?"  
  
He rubbed his temple and nodded. "Sure. Whatever you want." He muttered, starting up himself.  
  
As they reached level ground, she stared at the house. "How long are we going to be here?" She ventured.  
  
He was watching the house with an interest that she didn't completely understand. "I don't know."  
  
He turned, staring at her quietly, then back at the house, and back at her. His eyes were dark, but not as dark as before. The silence of the world pressed into them, isolating them, as the whole world seemed to be in chaos around them. His eyes were not as harsh anymore, and his voice didn't seem to taunt her when he spoke.  
  
He turned to the house, then stepped toward it. "I just don't know."  
  
(((((((((())))))))))  
  
Note: Yay! This chapter was dying to be written... I'm glad I got it done... now... we move to the next part... And I think I already know what my next pair of stories is going to be... No, I'm not taking votes, but at least I know that at least one will go over well... neither have titles yet, but I am writing the untitled fantasy story from the poll in Puppeteers... hope no one minds... the other is actually not even going to be romance... but a Megumi- centric story about her origins... ::coughcough:: I just never liked her because she's a character seemingly 'thrown together', and they never explore the possibilities that could be her roots... oh... I'm going to have so much fun with it! Though... it will be my very first R rated story for the... well, you'll have to see... I actually hope to see some (if not all) of you there... I estimate that I will get the first chapters of both up in late July or early August. Though... please tell me what you think of this chapter! 


	7. Water

The Samurai Wives

Note: It's my birthday!!!! ::bouncy:: And I'm having my first birthday party EVER on Saturday… I'm so excited! I'm 16!!! Well… technically not until about 5:45 tonight… but I will be!! If you're reading this, then there's the possibility that I'm already 16… I don't know. This, however, and a new chapter of 'Voix' is my gift to you all, in the truest of hobbit fashion. I also had a small case of… ::trails off into a whisper:: writer's block. Aye, it was quite frustrating, but I managed to get inspiration again… and I didn't even have to get the whip out on my muses…

Nguardian- Would you believe that I didn't even realize? Looking back, however, on the first chapter titled 'Silence'… um… I think it wasn't completely working for that chapter, but I'm not going to change either one. In all actuality, I do think it does serve a purpose (even if it was probably unconscious on my part…) to tie the story back to certain parts of the story. Silence implies a pause, an awkward moment, hesitation, or even a complete change of subject in a conversation… In these chapters, the tone of the story has been changing… and now that I've set it up, there's a possibility that there will be further chapters titled 'Silence' or some variation thereof. (Margaret Atwood does the same thing in her novel, 'The Handmaid's Tale', by titling several different sections of the book 'Night')

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Chapter Seven- Water

The rhythmic sound of wood being chopped drifted into the garden. Kaoru looked up and wiped a small bead of sweat from her brow. The days were growing longer. They were also getting hotter. Kaoru had barely realized that she had been away from the Tokeiji the entire winter, as well as a few weeks of the autumn before that.

She pressed her finger into the earth, then dropped a few seeds into it, before covering it with a small amount of soil. The sun was sinking slowly into the far horizon, but the heat still pressed onto her neck. The cool earth on her hands comforted her as she closed her eyes and took in the cool breeze that breathed around her heated neck.

Instinctively, she reached up and touched her neck, feeling the feverish burn of her agitated skin. She cringed when it stung to touch the sun-made redness on her neck.

"Oh…" She whispered softly. How long had she been here, at this house in the countryside? She shivered as the wind made her cold. The sun had slid behind the mountains.

She pressed her finger into the earth again, looking over her work. She had planted many of the seeds, leaving only a small number left in the tiny sac. She dropped a few more into the last hole, taking her time to lovingly cover over the hole in the earth.

"Kaoru!"

She let her fingers linger over the cool earth, wishing a silent prayer that they would grow well, before standing up. "Hai?" She called back to the redhead, who was standing by the house.

He was less intimidating without his swords, which were well hidden inside the house, and he wore his hair in a lower ponytail, hair constantly falling out into his face. His eyes were scanning the horizon, then over into the forest that loomed beside their house.

_Their _house.

Kaoru wasn't sure why, but she couldn't think of it as her house, or his house… it was their house. She stifled the giggle that nearly bubbled to the surface when he rubbed his temple in agitation.

"Are you coming?" He called impatiently.

"Yes, I'm coming…" She said evenly, striding past him into the house, a tiny grin bursting on her face.

"What are you so happy about?" He was stepping into the tiny kitchen.

"We had a talk, the earth and I." She kneeled beside a small bucket of water, gazing into its depths at her dirty, but contented, face. She plunged her dirty hands into the water, rubbing the dirt off methodically.

He scoffed.

"What?"

"You're never serious."

"And you're too serious. I think that I balance that out." She flicked the water off her hands and stood in the small entrance to the kitchen, watching him with her hands on her hips.

He didn't speak for a moment. Then, "I wish you would be more serious. It's dangerous here, too." His voice was quiet, but he didn't take his eyes off the radish he was carefully slicing.

She sighed and seized a knife, standing next to him. "Has anything happened yet?"

"Did anything happen for the sixteen years you were at your temple? It doesn't have to be immediate. It may still be coming."

"I thought we were going to be safe here." She attacked a radish savagely with the knife.

He stopped his own chopping, laying a hand on her aggravated hands. "You'll ruin it if you cut like that."

She scowled at him. "I don't care."

"I do."

She glared at him, but his eyes remained unemotional. "Fine." She dropped the knife and pulled her hands away from him.

He began to chop his radish again.

"If we're not safe here, why did we come?"

"Because they don't know that we are here. There was word that there was someone who was a spy among us. We don't know who it was… we don't even know how much they told… It's just a possibility that the spy knew we were coming here."

Kaoru stared intently at her mangled radish. She and Kenshin had come to tolerate each other's presence back in Kyoto, but sometimes she thought that maybe she even enjoyed his company. She glanced over at him, his skillful hands delicately cutting into the flesh of the radish.

She gave an involuntary shudder as she turned away. The thought made her think of how many men he had killed.

She heard the clatter of the knife hitting the board.

"Dammit." He muttered softly, and she glanced up to find him pressing his hand to his cheek.

"What happened?"

"It's bleeding again…" He muttered, stepping away from the board. He was backing out of the kitchen slowly, unable to mask the confusion that was written on his face. Blood was seeping through his fingers, down his arm. It was smeared slightly, leaving a crimson stain on his otherwise pale skin.

"Wait!" Kaoru took his free arm and led him out to the well, grabbing a candle and flint quickly before stepping outside. Drawing a bucketful, she kneeled next to him with a small bit of one of her kimono. She dipped the cloth into the water and rinsed off the stains on his face.

The long mark seemed to bleed continuously. She never understood it, but had watched him as he washed it meticulously until the bleeding stopped. Every time it started up again, something like fear seemed to wash over the older teen, as though he was afraid it would never stop bleeding.

It had been weeks since the night they escaped Kyoto, and the long laceration should have long begun to heal itself.

"Kenshin?"

He turned his head to face her, almost in surprise. "Yes?"

"What happened?"

"With what?"

"The night we left. Were you ever hurt like that before?"

He sighed. He was sitting quietly, as she caught the blood sliding from the cut. "No. I have never been injured while…" The words wouldn't seem to come to him.

Kaoru understood. "Then what happened?"

"I hadn't been out… for a while… not since I went to get you. Part of it may have been lack of practice, but I doubt that. We were surprised, and ambushed… Outnumbered… What happened after that… I'm sure you can imagine…"

She nodded, pushing images from her head. "And then… you came back to the inn."

He didn't move much, letting her cleanse the wound. He dangled his fingers in the water that conformed to the wooden bucket, dragging them through its silky comfort. He closed his eyes, letting himself relax against the stones of the well. The world was so chaotic, but Kenshin felt, for the first time in ten years, comforted. He didn't need to see Kaoru's face to know she had all her concentration focused.

"Do you hate me?"

Kaoru stared up at him; his eyes now open to stare at hers. "What?"

"Do you hate me?" He repeated calmly.

"What for?" Her mind was blank with what he was trying to ask her.

"For taking you from the temple. For bringing you here." He waved a hand around to the house.

She laughed and shook her head. "If you hadn't I'd be dead, you know. I'm grateful that you saved my life as many times as you have." She paused and pulled the strip of bloody fabric away. "I don't hate you, Kenshin."

"Are you sure?"

She smiled, and stood slowly. "Come on… let's get back inside." She turned and started to the door.

"Kaoru?"

_Twice now_. She thought, turning back to face him. _Twice he's used my name…_

"Hai?"

He was standing up carefully, the night nearly swallowing him. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out the candle, lighting it carefully, the light spilling out from her and illuminating him.

He stepped further in. "I have to go to the town tomorrow… We need to get things."

She nodded and stepped toward the house. "Okay."

He took her arm quickly to stop her. "What am I going to tell them?"

She blinked. "I don't know… That we just moved here."

"I know that… but about you. I can't tell them what we're really here for."

"I don't understand."

"Kaoru… you don't look anything like me… people are going to wonder why… it's not right as it is."

She stared at him. "You mean Katsura didn't give you any instructions on things like this?"

"No." He paused, glancing out into the darkness, as though he felt something was watching. He lowered his voice. "We weren't going to be here this long… it was really only supposed to be a couple days, until we got word that it was safe to come back. We would be relocated to another location… the new head quarters."

"And… you think we may not be going back at all."

He sighed. "I don't know… That's… why I need to know."

Realization struck her. "Oh…" She murmured, thinking back to what he had said. He was right, she knew. She would never pass as his sister. "I could… just… stay here… No one has to know…"

It seemed silly, since she knew that it would never work. If they truly were stranded in the countryside for however long it was that they would be… she couldn't stay hidden forever.

And why was it so hard to just let it go?

She turned and stepped inside. "Just tell them…" She swallowed the lump in her throat. What on earth was keeping her from just saying it?

"Just tell them… I'm your wife."

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Note: Okay… so it turned out a bit… soft. I know you guys don't mind at all… do you? Anywho, please leave me reviews! It's my birthday! ::still bouncing:: I'm so happy! Anyway… I would like it if you guys were to leave me reviews… it'd be great… though… I'm not sure what the total is for this story… hm… and damn, it looks like the chapter of 'Voix' has to wait until tomorrow… sorry!


	8. My Reflection

The Samurai Wives  
  
Note: Told you all I'd get this chapter up today... 'Voix' is going to be finished tomorrow, and I get to go to work in a few hours! Those of you reading 'Voix' know that I've been missing from the updates since my birthday because I got a job, because I've been insanely busy, and because one of my friends died June 6th. I didn't find out until the 11th of this month, and it put me out of commission for a week after posting a chapter of 'Voix' to explain that I was going to be icky for a while. I'm doing better now, and I'm ready to jump back into the world of updating.  
  
By the way, did anyone catch the foreshadowing last chapter?  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine! Don't sue! Still poor!  
  
(((((((((())))))))))  
  
Chapter Eight- My Reflection  
  
If I believed in a better future, did I believe that I would live in it? Did I believe that I'd just fade away like the past eras?  
  
Kenshin stole a silent glance to the girl walking next to him. Her bounced step, the smile on her face as the wind took hold of her hair, while the sun shone on her, mottled with the shadows of trees, everything about her radiated joy. He turned away, scanning the forests around them.  
  
What would I do if we ever can bring this to be? How would I get by? There wouldn't be any place for a swordsman anymore.  
  
"You're quiet today."  
  
He shook himself out of his reverie as she spoke softly to him. "I'm always quiet."  
  
She placed her hands on her hips mockingly. "Not quiet like this."  
  
He raised an eyebrow. "So? You're quiet today as well."  
  
"You're rubbing off on me." She shot back.  
  
"You know," He started. "It's going to be very difficult to convince people that you're my wife if you act like this."  
  
She shrugged. "Would you rather I stay at the house?"  
  
"If that's what you wanted, then you should have stayed there."  
  
"I didn't ask what I wanted. I asked what you wanted. Don't you ever have opinions?"  
  
"If I didn't, would I even be here?"  
  
She mumbled something in reply, and tugged on the sleeves of her kimono. "Point taken." She paused, then looked up at him. "What do we need to get?"  
  
"Rice, miso... the basics."  
  
She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small bag, jangling it close to her ear. "Can I look around for something?"  
  
His interrupted her gaze, which bored into her. "What is it?"  
  
She smiled and tapped her finger on his cheek. "You'll just have to see, won't you?"  
  
Kenshin scowled. "Whatever... just make sure that you're careful when talking to people."  
  
"Understood." Her voice was meek and obedient, even though just as a joke.  
  
A stab of pain wrenched through him, knowing that she should never sound submissive. "Don't sound like that." He choked out gruffly.  
  
She blinked, then nodded. "O...okay." His tone implied something deeper to her, and she sighed. "We're almost there..." The feeling of awkwardness washed over her suddenly as the village came into view.  
  
The same uncertainty from the night before filled her over, and she bit her lip.  
  
"Let's go." He took a step toward the village, and she silenced herself. If she were to pass as his wife, then she would not be able to fight with him.  
  
She kept herself quiet as he picked out the supplies they needed, introducing them whenever necessary as a newly married couple looking for a new life away from their own war-torn village. Finally, as he finished with the things they needed, she tugged on his gi. "Can I go now?"  
  
He nodded, glancing carefully around them. "Where is it?"  
  
"Just over here. Could you wait here?"  
  
Stepping over to a small table, she scanned the surface of it quickly, then reached down and selected one of the items. Paying for it quickly and wrapping it, she hurried back to him. "Can we go home now?"  
  
The words struck him in sudden realization. "H...home..." The words fell from his mouth before he could stop them. He had never, in all his memory, truly called any place home.  
  
Slowly, mechanically, he nodded. "Let's go home."  
  
((()))  
  
Kaoru set the clean rice bowls back into the small wooden box by her feet.  
  
"What did you buy today?" Kenshin's voice was quiet. The soft candlelight illuminated his face and made his hair glow eerily.  
  
She smiled and reached over onto one of the tables, picking up her package. "I'll show you." Pressing it into his hands, she sat down next to him. "Open it."  
  
He swallowed and opened it carefully, then found himself staring down into... himself.  
  
"A mirror?"  
  
She beamed.  
  
"Wasn't this expensive?"  
  
A wistful sigh slid through her lips. "It was... but it was so pretty... and I wanted to show you what you look like." Her smile was warm. "I want you to see what I see."  
  
His calloused finger reached down and touched the cool glass. He had never, except in water, seen himself. The way his eyes had lightened into a cool violet, and the way his skin was a pale peach. His hair, dark like drying blood...  
  
The ugly mark on his cheek.  
  
He flinched and set it on the table, face down. "Thank you." His tone was curt.  
  
She reached over the table and held it out to him. "Don't you see? Can't you see what I do? Can't you see the kindness, and the strength? You can't dwell on your faults!" She kneeled next to him, keeping the mirror held up to him. Her voice lowered. "Kenshin... you're not the monster you think you are. Don't think that you have to alienate yourself because you've been through it all."  
  
His eyes widened as she stared into him with a mix of sadness and determination.  
  
"You're not a monster." She set the mirror down and closed her hands on his cheeks. "You never were."  
  
His heart raced, while his breathing became shallow. It was an unfamiliar feeling to him.  
  
Is this... where my place would be?  
  
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Note: I know it's short... I know... but it's what I wanted out of it, though it was another 'stream of consciousness' chapter. It ties back to when they talk about how he thinks he's a monster... and things are getting better! Yes, you can see how things are going with them... we've still got a long way to go, but... I like how it's coming along. Until next time! Ja! 


	9. Birthing Scars

The Samurai Wives

Note: Let me begin this with a short statement: This chapter has multiple purposes. The first half has one purpose, and the second a completely different tone to it, for a completely different purpose, and even may seem to contradict the first part. I realized that, while writing the chapter number and title, I am way off schedule with this story, and what would have normally been two chapters, became merged into one. And while I am very sensitive to my readers' desires, I simply don't have enough time to write two separate chapters on what I've merged together into this one. I'm only planning on another 7-8 chapters after this one, and I'm not even past the halfway point in the plot. From here on out, things will be moving FAST in the story. This is the turning point in a) Kenshin and Kaoru's relationship (on more than one level here. Not just a romantic level, but on their perceptions of one another, and of themselves). b) The plot of the story. Everything is going to take a completely different tone, now that I'm getting into what started the entire reaction of the previous eight chapters. c) The characters themselves! This is huge! Characters that were brief and unexplored before will become vital, while some formerly important ones are going to fade from the picture completely. The personalities and attitudes of our two main characters are going to be changing drastically, and at the same time, there will be a plethora of new characters coming in. If it seems like I got moody halfway through this, and decided to take it somewhere completely different, rather than focusing on one issue or another, well... I understand that, but I'm comfortable with the transition made to bridge the two events. And that wasn't even close to short...

Disclaimer: Don't sue me! I may have a job now, but I still don't have enough money to pay for a lawyer! I'm only borrowing the characters for my own plots, and I don't claim ownership over them. I don't even own either of the songs quoted below (see, I've even marked the title, and the artist.). No legal action is required, thank you. Please don't sue me, okay? Much obliged.

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'I've got my hand in redemption's side, whose scars are bigger than these doubts of mine. I'll fit all of these monstrosities inside and I'll come alive.'

-Switchfoot 'Redemption'

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Chapter Nine- Birthing Scars

The room was quiet. It wasn't silent, like so many other nights; but just quiet. The sounds of the crickets were minimal and soft, perfectly tuned in with the breeze blowing through the trees just outside. Kenshin took in a long breath of night air, his back pressed against the wall. He didn't plan on much sleep, but just enough, as always.

A soft break in the steady breathing just across the room caused him to look up warily, watching as Kaoru shifted in her sleep. Long before they had settled the dispute about sharing a room, so long as he remained true to his sleeping habits against the walls, wakizashi at close hand, and she took the futon on the opposite end of the room. He let out a small breath, unwilling to break the quiet symphony outside the house.

He felt as though it would be just another of many insomnia-ridden nights. Scoffing mentally, he picked up the short blade and slipped out, silent as a shadow. The night still pressed against him insistently, the winds taking care to play with his hair, lifting it up gently as he lowered himself to the ground, facing up into the clear, dark night sky. Reaching carefully into his gi, he pulled out the strip of silk that had floated on the winds to him months before. The silk had worn a bit, but had lost none of its original softness on his hardened hands. He turned it over in his hands, letting it flow around him, eyes sliding shut.

A soft hand touched his shoulder before he reacted by unsheathing his wakizashi and laying it on the girl's throat. A short gasp burned his throat as the blade clattered to the ground shamefully.

"K-Kaoru!"

She swallowed carefully, fingers absently touching the tiny nick on her neck where his sword had dug in. "I'm sorry! I didn't say anything... caught you off guard. I should have known better."

He seized her tiny wrist and pulled her to the ground, just as her hand seized her robe and held it firmly shut. His thumb brushed over the cut, her blood staining the toughened skin. She stared up at him with wide blue eyes, full of fear.

"Please don't look at me like that." He whispered. The moment was musical with the sounds of the earth, and it demanded that no interruption be made.

Swallowing the sudden thickness that made her tongue not want to move of her accord, Kaoru shivered. "Like what?" His voice, in moments like those, was urgent. It was as if he was not asking her because it was what he desired, but that it was what he needed.

"Like you're afraid I'm going to swallow you. Like... I'm a monster." He lowered his eyes to the ground and, as if possessed by the night itself, continued. "I'm... afraid... of it... I don't care what anyone else thinks... but, for a reason I can't figure out," He trailed off, swallowed, and found his voice again. "I don't want you to think of me like that."

There was something about him that was always crying out for her acceptance, and her forgiveness for his sins. Kaoru realized what the teenager was asking her for when he pleaded with her like he was. Pale hands, soft as the silk that lay forgotten on the ground, lay themselves on either side of his face.

"You're not a monster, Kenshin. You are a man." Her voice faltered for a moment, the full weight of what she was realizing crashing down on her. "The women I knew growing up were the samurai wives, and they told me that men were monsters... But when I finally met a man, he wasn't the monster I thought he would be. But he was haunted by monstrosities, and thought that it made him one..." She closed her eyes for a moment, and then stared deep into his. "Kenshin... You are no monster. You are a man."

Sometime when she was speaking, all the sounds in the symphony stopped, leaving them in absolute silence as he absorbed what she was saying. He swallowed, understanding how very tangled together the two of them were; both physically and in their destinies. The whole world was holding its breath, as if waiting for him to make a decision as to whether or not he would take the leap of faith that had been presented to him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but it was lost the moment he did so, and he shut it again. She pressed a soft finger to his lips.

"Don't say a word." The order was kind and understanding; giving him the time he needed.

"There's nothing left to say." He told her quietly, leaning forward to press his forehead to hers.

"I... know..." The sheer quiet of everything would have unnerved her, if only she heard it through the rush of sound in her ears and the deafening pounding of her heart. The breaths she took became more labored and shallow as he laid his mouth on her cut neck.

Her senses ignited, but all she could feel was numbness as the sounds of countless warnings from her past came rushing through her ears, completely unheeded.

_But... he's not... a monster._

((()))

Kaoru stretched carefully, rubbing her eyes afterwards. Just as she finished stretching, her memory crashed in, and she stopped dead.

"Oh my..." She chewed on her lip fervently, crawling up off her futon.

A quick scan of the room told her that she was alone, and she buried her face back into the cushion of her bed.

"It was just a kiss... A little, tiny, meaningless..." She felt a sharp pain in her lip and the bitter, metallic taste of blood flooded into her mouth; a sharp slap to her face, dragging her out of the fantastical illusions she was weaving in her mind that there was no meaning in what had happened.

"Why couldn't I just... have stayed asleep...?" She whispered hoarsely into the cushion.

A quiet footfall outside the door announced Kenshin's presence before he opened the shoji.

"Are you awake yet?"

She hesitated, then, "Yes." The reply was muffled, and she wasn't certain he'd heard her. She lifted her head off of the futon and stared up at him half-intently- searching for any indication to his feelings, though she expected nothing from the cool assassin.

He shifted in a manner that could only be interpreted as awkwardly, and set a hand on the frame of the door. "I'd like it if you got dressed quickly. Iizuka's here."

All thoughts of the previous night, and the ensuing confusion, fled her mind. "What?", was all she managed to choke out before stumbling to her feet and reaching over for a kimono; completely disregarding the kind attitude the boy was giving her.

He shook his head. "Just get dressed, if you will." His eyes flicked away from her and the room for a brief second before settling back on her. "And hurry." He slid the shoji shut and she heard him pad down the hall softly.

The blood that had begun to coagulate on her lip was gone in a moment as she bit the lip hard. "Hai."

Moments later, Kaoru stepped into the kitchen, where Iizuka knelt at their table. A hot temper rose in her seeing this, but she suppressed it and knelt as far from him as possible.

"I say... you weren't lying! I thought that by now you would've-" Kaoru flushed, knowing precisely what the man had been thinking of saying before receiving a sharp look from Kenshin.

"I would watch myself, if I were you. Tell her why you're here." Kenshin's voice held none of the kindness she'd grown used to hearing from him, for her; nor the softness he had when she cracked further into his shell, and he into hers. Kaoru shivered in the realization that Kenshin had changed so radically without her realizing.

Iizuka leaned back slightly. "We thought Katsura-sama had bailed on us. Just up and left with that geisha... Turns out he was in hiding and didn't tell anyone where, so we could at least figure out how to regroup. He started showing up at other member's safe houses and telling them where and when to meet up about three weeks ago." He scoffed. "Took him until two days ago to get to me. I told him I'd come get you two and tell you where to meet us." He gave a feral grin to Kaoru. "Guess you're getting back to Kyoto, princess. It's a matter of days before you get to your family, once you're back." He turned to Kenshin. "Some hidden members have managed to get us a good footing back in the city, and that's why we've been able to come back."

Kaoru heard Kenshin murmur something under his breath, and nod curtly. "Fine. We'll pack up and be on our way within the next day. Tell Katsura that." He stood up, and Kaoru noticed that his katana was out of the chest he'd hidden it in and in his hand.

She stood up. "Go on now. If we're to get back soon, then you'd best go on so we can get things done." Her blunt tone startled him, but he stood and left with a quick nod to each of them.

The redheaded teen clenched his fists tightly and set his katana on the table irritably. "That dirty son-of-a..." He trailed off and glanced up at her quickly, raising his eyebrows in apology.

She knelt across from him. "It's a trap." She stared intently at him. "You know it is, don't you? He's the spy, and we didn't know until now. He's lying."

Rough hands fingered the hilt of the katana. "I think he's not lying about Katsura. I think that he's been in hiding, and he finally came out to regroup. I don't even think he's lying about the Oniwabanshu helping them get a good footing in the city... except that the Oniwabanshu isn't an Imperialistic group." He hissed, wrapping his fingers around the hilt, clenching it until his knuckles turned white. Cold fury was etched into every line on him, radiating out from him.

Kaoru set her hand on his. "Don't be like that. We know it's a trap, and we can avoid it because together we have the foresight to know that we've been betrayed."

A tranquilizing effect ran over him from her touch. The hot pain of the fury in his chest cooled, and he closed his own hand around hers. "You're right..." Inhaling slowly, the pressures of what await them on their return to Kyoto causing his head to pound, he stood up stiffly. "He knows we know. We have to get out of here."

"What makes you think-" She never finished for the loud bang of the door being knocked in.

Kenshin's instincts took over, reflexively seizing and unsheathing his sword, holding it before him. The long months of waiting hadn't had any effect on his skills, he could already tell. "Kaoru!" He shouted, yanking her by the wrist behind him.

She stared at the group of people crowding into their house. Her heart froze over at the sight of the torch in the hands of the one standing closest to them. The plume of smoke drifting up from the burning wood caught in her throat, and she coughed violently.

The ninja with the torch smiled at them horribly. "We've been sent to exterminate you."

Kenshin pushed Kaoru back roughly, either not noticing or caring that she crashed into the counter, and raised his sword. "Get out of my way."

"No." A laugh was the response given as well, one that was cut of quickly as Kenshin disappeared, and reappeared next to him, sword dripping with fresh blood from the deep slash in the man's neck.

"A shame." He hissed, flicking the blood off his sword with a quick swish.

Kaoru gave a strangled cry, half in horror of watching Kenshin commit what she had believed him incapable of, but more so of the horror of watching helplessly as the torch fell, the wooden floor bursting into flames.

Kenshin turned slowly, the flames growing faster than he had thought they could have, and cried out her name desperately. The darkness in his eyes faded back into horror-struck lavender. The remainder of the attackers fled without him noticing, standing just feet from the terrified girl with a barrier of flame between them.

The early morning peace was already shattered with the ugly smoke rising into the pale blue skies. The birds fled the trees in alarm and a loud twittering. Kaoru felt her strength leave her quickly as the smoke drifted lazily into her lungs, choking her.

Throwing all caution to the winds, Kenshin sheathed his katana and pushed into the flames, emerging on the other side to lift the girl effortlessly. Without a second thought, he broke through the shoji and retreated from the house. When they were a safe distance from the burning structure, he looked up and watched it burn, marring what had promised to be a beautiful day. Kaoru stirred and sat up slowly, then jerked toward the house.

"My mirror!" She cried, making to stand up and return to the house.

Kenshin pulled her back. "No! It's not that important!"

She fell to her knees and watched feebly. "I... It was important to me... because... I felt that... it was my link to you..." The tears slipping from her eyes left tracks in the soot on her face.

Feeling more powerless than she, Kenshin did all that his new emotions told him to do, and embraced the girl tightly. "No... It's not... We don't need a mirror to help us see one another anymore."

Finding no reply adequate, and he nothing more to say, the pair sat, bloodstained and covered in soot, on the grass on a peaceful day killed. Her sobs shook her body, but neither took their eyes from their blazing home, feeling the same pain together as their memories caught fire and burned.

(((((((((())))))))))

Note: Not much left to say, except that I really like how this turned out... I renamed the chapter at least three times while writing it, and when I went back to change it from 'Birthing Scars' I realized that it was the perfect chapter title. My inspirations for this chapter? Some of my own experiences went into this, in that I sat across the street and watched my house burn once (I remember running back inside after we found out it was burning to grab my backpack because I didn't want to go to school unprepared the next day). Another inspiration was Switchfoot's 'The Beautiful Letdown'. Go buy it. I command you. I'm going to see them in concert next Saturday! But really, they're absolutely breathtaking, and I recommend them wholeheartedly. They were my muse-food for this chapter, and I'm glad it was them... Anyway, it's almost 2 AM, and I'm rambling. Until next time!


	10. Storm

The Samurai Wives

Note: Blaaaah... School's so much fun, but when it comes to updates, it's a real drag, because I have virtually no time, what-so-ever, except late, late at night, and I rather like to sleep then. I started my stupid Public Speaking class... I don't think it's that much fun... for me, at least. I just don't like getting up and talking to complete strangers. But anyway, I've found a little bit of time every day or so that I've set aside specifically for this writing thing... I'm also a bit peeved with myself, because I knew I didn't have a lot of time, and I still put up both 'Noir' and 'The Far Side of Heaven'. Even more irritating, I even think I'm going to write another story to accompany 'Voix' and 'Noir', even though it would be more Kaoru-centric, taking place before the prologue of 'Voix', and during the three years between the prologue and first chapter. But, to be completely honest, I won't even start on that one until 'Noir' is finished, which may not be until November, or even December. So, if I'm not dead by then (my short term memory is shot to hell, and it's only the second week of school), look for 'Ciel' around that time. On a more present note, this story is getting close to its end, with only 6-7 more chapters after this one. Labor Day is coming up, and I'm hoping to get 2-4 chapters written over the long weekend... if I don't, it may not be until October that this story is finished. Thanks so much, and please enjoy!

Disclaimer: Please don't sue, as I'm not claiming rights to this. Except, maybe my plot. Thanks!

Chapter Ten- Storm

Kaoru stumbled, tripping on her own feet, combined with the rough terrain of the dirt road. A warm hand caught her, keeping her from falling, but pulled her along gently instead of waiting for her.

"We shouldn't take too much time. They could still track us." Dusk was falling around them, and Kaoru could already see the stars burning above them.

"When will we be in Kyoto?" She asked quietly, picking up her pace to match his.

"Soon." Was his only reply, eyes not even looking at her, but all around them to see the entire landscape, for the possibility that they could be attacked.

She nodded as they came over a hill that had hidden the dim lights of the city from them. "Is that it?"

He nodded once, very slowly.

"Do you know where everyone will be waiting?"

"I have a general idea."

She sighed, withdrawing back into herself. "I see." She murmured. The feeling rushing over her was one not understood. She wanted to bring him back to reality; to what had happened to them, and how they should be reacting, as opposed to his indifference that had her confused and hurting worse than she had been when they left the house that morning.

Within moments, they were only a few minutes stride from the outskirts of the city. Kenshin slowed down to a stop.

"Kaoru..." He had turned to stare at her.

She turned slowly. "Yes?"

He looked out to the city, and then stared at the ground. "Katsura probably didn't know that Iizuka was the spy... That will be the first thing I will have to tell him."

"Yes, I figured that would be the case. What are you saying?"

He looked up at her, his stare piercing. "It was decided that you would be going to your family around this time. Just about this week, because we knew we would somehow manage to make things safe by then. It was decided long ago, before we even went to retrieve you."

The words left a smarting sting inside her, which ignited into a hot anger. "And you never told me? What if something had happened where it wouldn't have happened? Where this entire plan of yours would go up in flames? What would you have done then? Didn't you think I needed to know?"

He looked unnaturally uncomfortable, but stared back at her clearly. "It isn't something I planned. I was only told to bring you back, then to protect you from any harm that may have threatened you. The plans were made by Katsura himself, and nothing I would have done or said would change them."

The anger inside her exploded. "And you never told me!"

"You knew you were going back. It was never a secret."

Unable to find a comeback, she looked away, pain rapidly replacing the anger. She had always known that she was going back to her 'family', though she had never met them, but had never thought that it would happen so soon... Or perhaps not even at all. Moreover, the feeling of betrayal stung worse than the idea of going to dwell with strangers. Somehow, during the short months living alone with him, Kaoru had grown accustomed to Kenshin and their silent life. A life where they never had to speak to let their feelings be known. She then felt deceived in his silence, in that he never told her how things were going to end.

"Let's go." He announced coolly, turning away from her and starting toward the city.

Unmoving, she watched him as he paced back down the other side of the hill. He didn't turn, nor stop, but called back in a flat monotone.

"Don't stand there. I said, let's go."

Kaoru turned her face up the sky, which was darkening slowly, the threat of a storm on the horizon. The dark clouds rolled ominously, flashing occasionally with the sharp lightning. A single drop of rain fell to her face, and then rolled down like an icy teardrop. "No... more..." She whispered to the advancing silence, which smothered her in her own anguish.

ooooooooo

Kenshin slid the shoji open furiously, dropping his swords on the floor unceremoniously before wringing out his soaked hair. Already, not even a moment inside the new inn, Katsura had sent a summons for him to come. A summons that he had known was coming since the beginning of the winter, through the start of spring, and then, just five weeks until the start of summer. Lifting his wakizashi gently from the floor, in an almost apologetic manner, he slid it into his belt again, followed quickly by the katana.

Even at that moment, he didn't understand his own anger. He didn't understand the frustration that pounded at him, insistently screaming that he listen and wake up to his own emotion. Ignoring it, he stepped into the room where Katsura waited, a stranger kneeling across from him.

"Himura-san."

Kaoru was there, he noted, and would not look at him. "Yes?" The syllable slid out, a frozen sound.

"Kaoru-dono... She tells me that Iizuka was the spy that deceived us all."

"It is true."

Katsura nodded once, then again to the man kneeling across from him. "Umeki-san is here to take her to her family..." He paused, then pressed on. "I... presume that the two of you have farewells to say?"

"You presume too much." Kenshin hissed quietly; politely. "I have business to attend to. Thank you." He bowed shallowly once to both men, turned, then left the three alone again.

His consciousness was still pounding on him.

oooooooooo

Note: Okay, it's short... but... oh well. Let it be. I got what I wanted done. There may be another chapter up by the end of the week, and if not, then just wait until the weekend, or until Tuesday. Please let me know what you think! Thanks!


	11. Silence

The Samurai Wives

Note: Blaaah... You all would kill me if you could get to me, but you can't, and I'm tired, so don't. I have a whole lot of crap on my plate right now, and writing this is very difficult, since all of my time is consumed by my project, school, my Public Speaking lass, work, home, and my non-existent social life... Anywho, I'm freezing to death because the whole school is finally air conditioned, and it's starting to cool off. The worst part is that I even thought about grabbing my sweatshirt this morning before I left... So now I'm wandering the halls (the only warm part of the school) in my swamp monster pants and a thin t-shirt... Also... I have apologies to make (!) to each of you... As it seems, my historical note... way back when was inaccurate. Receiving somewhat of a severe tongue-lashing from daniel-gudman in his review... well... it seems that I missed a few points while doing my research. So... to answer all questions now, here I go... To daniel-gudman:

1) I'm not totally sure if Chiyo-san is the lady who runs the inn. If that is the name of the woman, then there's a major 'OOPS!' on my part, because 'Chiyo' was just a name that popped into my head when naming a minor character. If it is... then rest assured that the old lady doesn't show up in this story... I'll go back to watch Trust and Betrayal to find out...

2) The 'oppression of women' thing is pretty much one of the main focuses of the story, which is why I tend to beat people over the head with it. Not meant to offend, but I note that you don't say anything about my perpetual 'beating over the head' thing with Kenshin's humanity, and his own belief that he's not human. This is an AU story, where the oppression of women is what Kaoru was raised on, and it tends to stick out in her a lot. Now that it's the second bit of the story, and she's starting to get over it, it won't stick out as much. But for the first part, it happened, it's what the story was based off of, and I won't change it.

3) As for my historical note, it's based off of my history class AND the definition of 'feudal'. Japan, to the eyes of a Western world, was considered feudal until the coming of the Black Ships in 1853 (I think that date is right), when Japan was forcibly opened to the Western world. During the wars that followed, Japan ceased to become a feudal society, morphing into an industrial power within 50 years (a change that took hundreds for European nations). Before the coming of the ships, Japan was still considered feudal for the order in which the government was set up (with the shogun on the top, with samurai and daimyos underneath him), this very much represented the European Middle Ages, where the king was on top, with lords and knights underneath him- and, therefore, Europe classified them as 'feudal'.

Disclaimer: Seeing as my

Chapter Eleven- Silence

The inn was silent.

Kenshin no longer had a ward to take care of, and his time was no longer consumed by her protection. No longer did he fight with a mule-headed woman, and no longer did he worry himself with her safety.

But he no longer felt alive, either.

The wind touched the treetops, without making a sound. But the petals from a cherry tree fluttered depressingly to the ground. Ikumatsu and Katsura watched them silently, taking in their beauty, but Kenshin could not feel as carefree about them anymore. They symbolized death to him. No longer did the world seem beautiful.

The lack of sound pressed into his ears, throat, eyes. He was suffocating in blank silence. There was no more left for him. There was no life left in him. There was no life left in the world, either. He tried to breathe, but found that his breath made no sound, even when he sighed.

The world was bleak. Even the birds that flew around the inn and landed near the pool were silent. The wind made no noise. The people who spoke were mute.

Perhaps he, Kenshin, was just deaf.

Perhaps he had been deaf all his life to the cries of life, and when he met that same mule-headed woman, she became his ears. When she left- or when they turned away from one another- the pillow of silence had descended once again on his consciousness. Even when the market cried out nearby, or the bells of the shrine maiden clanged gently at a festival, he heard nothing.

And, in hearing nothing, Kenshin felt the warm presence of emotion fade away into blank, frozen, nothing. In losing his ears, and the sounds of life, he had lost the way to feel.

It wasn't as though he never heard anything. There were the times, when he was sent to the battlefields, where he could hear every blood curdling scream of death; where he could hear the clash of blades, and the cracking of bones, and even- so keen was his hearing of death- the sound of blood flowing from open wounds and poisoning the ground. But when he washed the blood away, cleaned his blade, and was finally able to sleep without the haunts of death crawling in his skin, the cold silence deafened him once again.

Spring melted away into the burning summer. Katsura had once told him that one should always enjoy the taste of sake. If one did not enjoy the taste, it meant that they were evil. Kenshin shuddered at the memory of the taste, but swallowed it all the same. Sake tasted like blood, but mixed with the floral scent of the silk he still carried. The mixture of the two sickened him, as though they were both his sides that should never mix. When they did, they produced a foul being that could not exist neither as a deliverer of death, or as a human being, who felt life.

Kenshin inhaled the smell of summer.

Nothing.

Cicadas buzzed from the trees. The world was green. He could smell nothing, unless it was the foul, metallic smell of blood. He tasted nothing, except the acidic taste of blood, when he ate. The world was dulled to his eyes; allowing no color to seep through, except the bright crimson of blood, and the sharp black of silence.

The revolution was ending.

End Chapter Eleven

Note: So... uh... a quick chapter... lots of symbolism in this chapter. Please let me know what you think in a review... I'll work on getting a new chapter up next week, but I make no guarantees, since I have three lunch meetings and a presentation to do next week. Thanks!


	12. White

The Samurai Wives

Note: So this update will come faster than the last one. I have a cat sitting on my arms, so it's very difficult to type, but there you are. He's just the jealous type. He wants comforting, because my dad gave him a bath earlier, and he rather despised it. This morning I walked six and a half kilometers (somewhere around three miles, really), and it pretty much tired me out, even before my mum dragged me shopping. And then I was going to do some writing, but remembered that I had a three-page Sociology paper, a speech outline, and a PowerPoint presentation on Acid Rain for my freshman, all due on Monday. So, grudgingly, I wrote the paper, finished the outline, and did the silly presentation, which they will not appreciate for all the effort I put in it, anyway. Ah... c'est la vie. Anyway, I've figured out the last few chapters (and epilogue), and I've figured out that this story has about, oh, say, three chapters left before the epilogue. Thank you, and please enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: Please don't sue me. I'm going to London, and I'm paying for it myself, out of my paycheck... I'm not staking any claim on RuroKen. Thank you.

Chapter Twelve- White

Kaoru stared out to the sky, which had held a steady, gray color for several days. A sigh slid from her lips, before she closed her eyes in resignation before turning away and closed the shoji. There was no bold adventure awaiting her anytime in her foreseeable future, she had long before decided. There was nothing waiting for her anymore, and it both frustrated and saddened her. Was there no great challenge waiting in her future? Was there simply nothing left for her to do with her life, but learn entertaining tricks? A rude scoff was muffled into a soft grunt in her throat.

Chiyo turned around, surprised by the suppressed noise. "Kaoru-dono?" She murmured, shifting through the chest they had together found, filled to the top with the loveliest kimono. Kaoru had worn none of them, sticking to the intention that she deserved them no more than anyone else. Her mind was stuck to other things.

Kaoru made a whisper of an apology, looking down to the ground; her hair ornaments jangling cheerfully as she did not feel. "Chiyo-san?"

Chiyo looked up again. "Yes, Kaoru-dono?"

Kaoru sighed, but she was already resigned to everything else, and had no desire to continue fighting anything at all, let alone Chiyo and her choice in honorific. "Oh... I... wished to know if you had made a selection." She finished lamely.

Chiyo flicked her eyes away from Kaoru for a brief moment, and then slipped her keen hands into the folds of silk, slipping out a single kimono, on which Kaoru could see nothing but white.

Kaoru suppressed her own urge to recoil and keep away from the cold white. It reflected her frozen over heart, and she longed to keep her heartbreak and pain to herself. The white was that of death, and while Kaoru did not think herself a superstitious person, the total lack of anything on the silk unnerved her.

"This one." Chiyo announced finally, opening it up to show Kaoru a splash of brilliant color.

She relaxed slightly; enough to nod and pull open her yukata. Chiyo had come with her from the inn, at her own request, to help her in all the things that she would have had other helping her with. She allowed Chiyo to dress her, though she consistently kept slowing her down. "Not so fast, Chiyo. Please." She would murmur every few moments.

After repeating the single phrase several times, Chiyo dropped the obi she was tying and stared at Kaoru teasingly. "Were I to go any slower, Kaoru-dono, I believe that you would age many years before I was finished!"

Kaoru nodded, once again resigned. It seemed so simple, this life. Everything was easy, but she was already missing her country house, where she had lived before, growing her own crops, and living with... with...

Kenshin.

The name slid through her mind, even though she had tried to ignore it for as long as she could. The spring was gone, and the burning summer had fallen upon them all. Despite the heat, she was still dressing in the heavy robes that held more elegance than the less formal yukata she had taken to wearing. Her father, whom she still could hardly believe as her own, despite her obvious resemblance, had requested her to attend with him a meeting. This meeting was important to him, and she had done everything she could have to ensure her attendance. She wanted to make him proud, even though a sinking feeling inside her led her to believe that this supposed 'meeting' was truly an arrangement for her own marriage.

Chiyo completed the complex knot on her obi, and patted her once on the back. "Ready, Kaoru-dono? I'll accompany you to the main chamber, if you like."

Kaoru nodded slowly. "Please, Chiyo-san. I would appreciate it so much..."

Chiyo escorted her to the room, knocking politely for her, before abandoning her at the door. Kaoru waited for the door to be opened, and stepped in stately. Her father watched her appraisingly, offering little more than a cool smile. He nodded to her, gesturing that she kneel beside him at the table.

"Our guests will soon be arriving." He stated unemotionally.

Kaoru said nothing, but stared down at the shock of white that was her kimono. It was a contrast to her skin, however pale it was. The larger margin of contrast, however, was between the long strands of dark hair that fell on the cold silk. The fascination she created with the purity of the white made her seem demure and a lovely woman.

She marveled at how like snow it was; how like the snow she was. Even while looking blank, her mind raced. It made her wonder if she was simply going to melt away in the summer heat. She had never, not once, in her life, imagined such a situation. And even if she had, she would have made herself tear at the constriction of her snow kimono, scream at the man she did not know, who called himself her father, and run far, far away.

Kaoru closed her eyes instead. The sound of a shoji opening let her know that the guests had arrived. She was still terrified of them, though none of her body language communicated this.

No one spoke, though she could hear one man sit down on his knees slowly. The second- for she was sure that there were two- was apparently standing.

The man sitting spoke. "Good to see you." His tone was conversational, directed at her father, and ever so familiar.

Kaoru's eyes snapped open, staring straight at the man who had sat down. Katsura sat calmly across from her, pouring himself a small cup of tea. She nodded silently, and with as little blatancy as possible. She did not allow her eyes to stray, but knew that her mind was already gone when she found herself focusing on the other man, whom she would not look at, for fear of being wrong.

She stayed silent for what stretched out into eternity. Her thoughts dwelled on snow and silence, and the fire that she could feel just beyond her reach; just too far away to truly warm her. The wooden floors were shiny and clean. They unnerved her, for she could find no spots on it. No humble marks that made the room seem less godly than her father wanted. The heat of the summer was burning through the shoji, but she could not feel it, longing to stretch herself toward the only other warmth she could feel in the room. She did not, however, want to be wrong.

She did not look up.

By the sudden change in the tones of the two men, the meeting was over between her father and Katsura. She looked up just as Katsura left the room, and his guard started to follow him. Her instincts betrayed her, and she looked up, eyes taking in the fire, which flared out toward her. Kaoru did not mind anymore; she felt as though she would not mind melting away anymore.

"K...Kenshin!" She cried, hardly aware of it.

He turned slowly, looking just over his shoulder, but stared deep in her. His eyes were as cold as when she had first met him, but held a far greater loneliness and pain than ever before. In his eyes, she could see his weaknesses, and he could see hers.

Kaoru held her breath, just as he opened his mouth to speak.

End Chapter Twelve

Note: Cliffhanger! And... another short chapter. It's late, and this will be going up Monday (it's Saturday). Just know that there are only two more chapters, and they may only be a bit longer than this, unless I manage to find more time to write. Thanks, and please let me know what you think in a review. Until next update!


	13. The Setting of the Sun

The Samurai Wives

Note: Ack! I lied! There isn't another chapter after this one! As I was writing, I decided to end it where it is (except the epilogue, of course), simply because I'd reached the point I wanted to make faster than I'd thought I would. Isn't it sad? Well, not really, because after I wrote the chapter, I felt this... I don't know... surge of pride that I'd accomplished the greatest thing I'd meant to do, which was to 'humanize' Kenshin again, and heal Kaoru of her misconceptions. Please enjoy this last chapter, and keep looking out for the epilogue, which will be out soon!

Disclaimer: Please don't sue me. I have to go teach the freshmen again. Don't sue me, since I'm claiming no rights with this disclaimer, except for my own plot. Nor do I own the song 'The Setting of the Sun', for which this chapter is named. Thanks.

Chapter Thirteen- The Setting of the Sun

_'And she says, "Please would you find me? I've lost my way. Please could you save me now?" He wakes to find that he's out of love again, and its time for him to run. And back inside her, he feels his innocence slowly setting with the sun. And he says, "Please would you save me. I've lost my way. Please would you help me to escape?" And their answers lie in a setting sun. And the reasons why will remain unknown, 'cause we life our lives until we come undone. We just have to believe.'_

_-Ben Jelen 'The Setting of the Sun'_

"Sit down!"

Her father's order stung, but Kaoru ignored it. He had cut off whatever Kenshin was about to say, and she...

She wanted to be free again.

Kaoru ignored him, even batted his arm away when he tried to force her to sit.

Katsura smiled. "Pardon the insolence, Lord, but your daughter has more fight in her than you have seen. She will not obey now."

Kaoru struggled, pulling away completely; staring Kenshin down. He stared back deadly.

"_You know... I never thought a man would make me laugh."_

"_I'm not really a man." He stared back down at the board.  
  
"Then what are you?"  
  
"A monster."_

The words she'd spoken echoed through her own head, reverberating within his own. There was nothing she had ever said that left more of an impact on him.

"_Kenshin... you're not the monster you think you are."_

"_You're not a monster." _

"_You never were."_

She couldn't think anymore, words pressing through her mouth and nose and eyes and everything. She wanted to scream them all to him; make him see that they were not just words. Wanted to make him understand what she was trying to say. What she had always been trying to say.

"Kaoru! Sit down, or I will have you removed."

Katsura was the only one who responded, and chose his words carefully. "Lord... Understand that this young man has saved your daughter's life countless times, and was her guard for many months. You would not... hold it against her, were she to have built a bond of trust with this man?"

"Of course not. But her actions are absolutely intolerable."

Katsura sighed, but nodded. "She's irrational. Will you let her have enough of herself to speak her mind to him?" A pause broke, but Katsura broke it again. "Alone?"

The emperor sent a sharp glare to Kenshin, but nodded and strode out as stately as he could, Katsura following him slowly after laying a calm hand on the warrior's shoulder.

"Don't blow it, Himura. I mean it." He said no more after the faint whisper.

The shoji snapped shut sharply, sending a reflexive jolt through Kaoru's spine.

She finally looked away from his fierce glare. "I... don't want you to leave."

"I know."

"And I don't want you to close up again."

"I know."

A tumbling feeling of falling ate away at her stomach. Kaoru felt very sick, but swallowed the acrid bile that rose in her throat. As it receded, a large, heavy knot formed in its wake. She felt near tears, stepping carefully to him. The white of her kimono added to the emptiness she felt, as to the colorless, deaf world that was his.

Kenshin could hear her words clear as day, and see the stark white as plain as the black in his heart. The winds were blowing between them.

"We can't keep up like this... Kenshin... This stupid masquerade. We can't pretend that the house didn't... burn..." She choked out the last syllable with labor.

Impulse seized his normally rational ways. "I don't want to."

"Neither do I!" She cried. "And I don't want to pretend there are no memories there... I don't want to pretend none of it ever happened, because it would just bring me back to the way I was. I was full of ignorance, and that was no better than what I hated." Soft, moonlight pale hands seized his, which were stained darkly with dried blood that had been bled from his veins.

He suppressed the urge to pull them away, to keep her from seeing them.

"I always knew I had to leave. When you told me it was so soon... of course I hated you for it, because I'd somehow grown so used to life as it was. Chaotic. Insane. Irrational." Her eyes searched his. "And I liked it."

"I... know." He murmured, a dam of emotion bursting in his chest. His eyes grew lighter, and his breathing became labored in the effort of keeping composure.

Her arms reached out and embraced him tightly. "Don't leave me alone again. I don't want to be alone like I was before."

In that precise moment, Kenshin felt himself coming alive. The world sharpened, and took on color. The sunlight had a color, and a smell, and a taste. When it touched her raven-dark hair through the painted shoji, he smelled the odd floral scent that had long faded from the silk he carried. The wind that blew outside had a gentle sound as it rattled the brilliantly green trees. Even though he was not standing where it could touch him, he could feel its gentle push. There was beauty like he'd never perceived.

His shells were stripped away, leaving behind what had always been within him, whether he knew it or not. For the very first time, Kenshin felt more human than he had ever known to feel. He breathed slowly, tasting the humid air in his mouth without the formerly haunting taste of blood mixing in. Hands, seemingly moving of their own accord, reached up to touch her face.

"Kaoru." Her name, even, held a smell when he spoke it; two syllables that slid from his lips. He memorized the curve of her heart-shaped face and closed his eyes again. "It's ending, even as it begins. We have no power of this anymore." He dropped his arms to his side, surging with new emotions.

She took in the words with the heavy air. They dragged down at her soul, tugging on her. "I want to, though."

"It doesn't matter, does it? So much adversity... So much everything..." A hand reached up to brush back a lock of hair, causing her ornaments to jingle. "I don't suppose you'll ever have need for this again... but..." He reached into his sleeve and drew out the strip of silk that had saved his floundering humanity. "I imagine that it belonged to you from the start." He pressed it into her hands and turned toward the shoji.

"Kenshin!" The choked word made him pause and let out a gentle laugh.

"You're holding on too tightly. Don't let your pain blind you to the unavoidable truth. You're royal, and I, remember, am the son of a farmer. There is an order to things, and this would be a direct violation to an age-old taboo." He smiled to himself, but did not turn to her. "Thank you for saving me from the monster I was becoming. I owe you more than this."

"Then don't go." She whispered to him, taking a difficult step forward.

He took in a long breath. "I don't mean to. Not forever, at least. I need time, Kaoru. Time that I never had before, and will now need to heal for all of this." He turned to look at her, the new, cool amethyst of his eyes meeting her sapphire. "It's not the end of all things, as you may think; just the end of this part of our lives. You have the power to take control of yourself. Use it, like you were always meant to. The strength of your soul will guide you to your fate. Is it also not that the most twisted of paths will always cross once again? And, Kaoru, is it also not true that you can think of none whose paths are as twisted as ours?"

"Kenshin..." She took another pained step forward. "It's not fair."

"I am a man, Kaoru; and you are a woman. There is no shame in either."

He opened the shoji slowly, and shut it with a gentle click behind him. The sun burned above him scornfully. There was something about his world that seemed wrong, turning Kaoru away as he had. There was a rush in his blood when he saw her. A warm shine of sunlight inside him when she spoke. Why, he asked himself, would he turn away the one thing that brought him to life so easily?

"For the sake of a tiny semblance of order in this damned chaos." He told himself, setting off into the streets.

Leaving the city slowly, Kenshin felt himself warming slowly. He glanced down at his swords, then up to the wide sky. Katsura and he had come to formally inform the emperor of the end of the revolution. All that was left was meaningless cleaning up.

Did I make a difference? He wondered, even as he pulled both katana and wakizashi from his belt and laid them in the grass on a rural hill. The grass accepted them graciously, as if telling him that he no longer had to bear their weight. Like Kaoru, it had given him absolution, and now his scarred soul could rest.

The breeze lifted his high ponytail into the sky, where he was watching carefully the thin, stretched clouds. Liquid warmth slid down his cheek, like the blood from his now sealed scar. Callous fingers touched it gently, pulling back to examine the crystal depths.

Even as the tears fell, Kenshin felt a smile floating on his face.

End.

Note: I feel so very proud of this ending... Granted, the epilogue is still coming... but this makes me happy. The end is very much influenced by both the song 'The Setting of the Sun' (You must listen to Ben Jelen's CD, 'Give It All Away'. It's absolutely phenomenal, I swear.), as well as Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'. The ending of The Amber Spyglass made me upset the first time I read it, but it was truly brilliant, and I could think of no better model for the end of this, than Lyra and Pan in the Botanical Gardens. If you can find the trilogy, GO READ IT! I read it three years ago, and I can still re-read it and find something I missed before that's very important. There was a very important line in this chapter, near the end, summing up the ENTIRE POINT OF THE STORY. If anyone can figure out what it is, then I'll figure out something really great to give all those who guess (I'm thinking about fanart drawn by either yours truly, or someone who actually has talent). Anywho, look out for the epilogue! It's coming soon!


	14. Epilogue

The Samurai Wives

Note: Aaahhh! The epilogue! This came upon me so fast, that I was completely stunned by the results of the story. So settle in for the epilogue, which is being written to a mix of Japanese themes, including Wufei's theme (which is playing as I type this). My kitty is helping me again, because he's starving for attention. But I digress, there's much to be done with this! Please enjoy, and leave me reviews telling me what you think, and thank you all for your unending support through this entire story! Without all of you pushing me on with reviews, IMs, and hard kicks in the rear I don't know what I'd have ever done. I certainly wouldn't have finished the story! Thanks again to all of you, and I hope to see you all in my future stories.

As for the little contest thing at the end of the last chapter, the line I wrote specifically to sum up the story was actually found by several people! Congratulations to all who guessed! Some were wrong (but I'll reward you for trying anyway). The line was 'I am a man, Kaoru; and you are a woman. There is no shame in either.' For their brilliance (and I apologize to those of you, knowing who you are, who had to waste your time picking my pathetic story apart to find that one line), I am in the midst of drawing them a piece of fanart (I need to get over my perfectionism, ink it, scan it, then e-mail it out. This may take a bit of time, winners, so please forgive me if I'm not as prompt as I'd prefer), which they will find in their e-mail inboxes within the next week to two weeks, or so. This picture (my first released piece of fanart) will be specifically for these people who found it, but may appear on my website... if I ever get around to actually building it.

Disclaimer: Don't sue me. I don't own RuroKen, or the song 'Come On', by Ben Jelen, otherwise I wouldn't be an over-stressed high school senior with a love for Moonpies. And I'd finally find that elusive Orange flavor again...

Epilogue

_'And finally the silence. Looking out, looking back across the sky. Trying to find a reason, knowing that I just left it all behind. Still, I smell a lingering softness. Where did she go? How did she go? ...I wanna know that she'll be coming here to me. Come on, without you I'll never feel the love inside of me. Come on, you know that we belong.'_

_-Ben Jelen 'Come On'_

A long breath filled her lungs slowly, the eyes sweeping along the horizon line, where a thousand mysteries waited for her adventurous feet. Dark cloth dipped low over her eyes, shading them from the hot sun and prying individuals. She exhaled very slowly, taking in the life of the world around her before sliding the unfamiliar feeling of the ring from her finger and letting it fall into the pale dust.

"Dust unto dust." She murmured, taking a lone step forward. She paused a moment before craning her head back for just an instant, gazing wistfully back at the city she had learned to call home. In all her efforts to avoid coming there, she thought, she had still built memories in the hated place- both good and bad. There was much to learn, she decided. Most of those things could not be learned in the confines of a tight-fitting kimono and tall sandals, or the burning hot rooms shielded pathetically by the paper shoji.

Kaoru was following a dream she'd fantasized about for years- two, to be precise- and had no intention of letting silly arranged marriages or her father stand in the way of what she wanted. She was not like the women at the temple, the wife of a samurai. It was as Kenshin had said, just before he left. He was a man, and she was a woman. There was no shame in either, truth be told. She had thought men were evil, and he had always longed to be given his humanity back to him, in exchange for his monstrosities. In her own way, Kaoru had realized, she had been afraid of her own humanity; terrified of becoming like the only other women she had ever met. Stripped of identity, hope, and life, Kaoru had seen the samurai wives flock to the safety of the Tokeiji, and she did not want to be like them. In the end, he somehow granted her the grace to avoid becoming like them; and in exchange, she had given him the humanity he had been seeking, even while killing night after night.

Kaoru's dream had always been to be free. But of what? She had wondered in her many empty hours left to think in her father's house. In time, she had come to realize that she had always wanted freedom from the seemingly terrifying truth that she was a woman, and possibly eternally bound to the fate of the wives. That day, however, Kaoru knew that she still wanted freedom- but of a different sort than before. That day, Kaoru made her decision to be free from constraint, and left the house. After packing her most humble kimono (she dared not bring one of fine silk, for what use would she have for it?), an old pair of sandals, and a long strip of silk that had long frayed around the edges and had long faded from its original color. Now the road lay long and open to her; the sky large and blue, with the brilliant disc of yellow-white sun burning down on her.

"I'm coming, Kenshin; down the same road you took." She smiled up to the sun. "I hope you waited for me." The first step taken was weary and difficult, but the next only required a direct thought of the movement. The third took nothing, but filled her with a strong sense of accomplishment, even as she slowly chose a pace to conserve her energy.

In two years, she knew, Kenshin could have been anywhere in Japan; but she knew better than to assume that she would wander aimlessly until she could hope to bump into him. Two years was a long time to think about where someone would go, and the occasional letter she received through Chiyo gave her enough information to keep a rough sketch of where Kenshin had traveled. Pulling her traveling hat down over her eyes, she smiled to herself. It was truly only a matter of time before she caught up the redheaded ex-assassin. He had sent a final letter just the week before, she knew by the date in the corner. He had sent several letters- almost half a year's worth- from the same village that lay not far from the city.

When she had thought hard about that, she had realized that she actually had a very good idea of where she could find him.

It took her a solid day's travel, with little more than a few stops to rest herself, to reach the hills and deep forests. Breathing slowly, she walked a path that she hadn't realized that had been embedded in her mind. Her breath felt ragged, even though she knew that she wouldn't lose her energy until she found Kenshin again. Her nerves felt as frayed as the cloth that she had tied tightly around her hand. How long, she pondered, would it take for her father to finally give up on the search for her? Would he know whom to ask as to where she would be?

Kaoru shook the thoughts away, pressing further up the mountain. The trees were denser here, and she knew that she was getting closer. Finally, she broke through the thick trees and stared into a fire-scorched clearing.

That had, at least, been what she'd been expecting to find.

In its wake, however, was a new house. It was built with the careful craftsmanship of a skilled man, but even she could see the small mistakes that its maker had left in it as an amateur. She stepped toward the house, heart pounding furiously. There was fertile ground here now, as though someone with careful care had brought her garden back to life. Small sprouts had burst from the soil, and grew hopefully toward the deep, cerulean sky. Kaoru set her sack onto the ground, with her hat and cloak, pushing back her sleeves. She kneeled in the earth, running her fingers through its silky existence. The sound of an axe splitting wood stopped before she had truly acknowledged it, causing her to jump in the absence of the familiar sound.

She stood slowly, unable to hear the thud of the axe hitting the ground, but only the sound of her own name. She smiled as best she could, containing herself only barely as she turned very slowly to stare into the eyes of her dream come to reality.

"Why... I mean... What are you..." Was all he managed, disbelief etched in his eyes, mouth and forehead. "What are you doing?" He stumbled out.

"We were having a little talk, the Earth and I." She told him slowly. "She was telling me how well you were taking care of her... and I had to tell her that I hoped that you would..." She stumbled over the rehearsed words, but swallowed the lump in her throat. "I hoped that you would do the same for me."

She could read his movements; restrained and struggling between an old, conscious feeling to stay rational, and a new impulse to do the unpredictable.

"You came." He gestured blankly to the house. "You came here. I don't understand."

She shook her head, stretching out a single hand for his. "You don't have to." He took it carefully, his red hair falling into his eyes from the careless way he'd tied it up. He brushed the wayward hair away impatiently. "It's part of being human... of being you."

The wind touched her cheek, caressing it like a lover's touch. She fell into its grasp, tilting her head up to the dimming sky that had taken on the illusion that it had spontaneously burst into flame.

"I know that... now, at least." Inhaling the wind slowly, he stared down into her with a thousand things running through his head. He did not, however, have to speak them. She already knew them all. "I think that I am jealous of wind." His fingers were curiously entwining themselves between hers.

"Oh?" She replied, her voice going higher just slightly. His voice had acquired the ability to leave her feeling warm and contented.

He led her toward the house slowly, his mouth turned up just slightly. His tone held the light feeling of humor, which she had once considered impossible for him. "I don't want to be jealous of anything. You know, because I'm selfish..."

"No, you're not."

He opened the door as they slid off their shoes and stepped inside. "I once wondered what I would do, once it was all over. I wondered if I'd made a difference, and I wondered where I could possibly go once it was all said and done." He stopped her in the small entranceway; staring at her with kind eyes she had never truly seen him with.

He wasn't finished, however. "I wondered if I just wanted to live... simply. When I left Kyoto two years ago, I left behind my swords as well. I took with me a legend and a cursed name, and wandered Japan for a year and a half, looking for a place to settle down. For a place where death is not a sport, or even a necessity for anything." His eyes wandered over the house. "I found myself back here, finally. It took a little bit of time, but eventually I got people to help me build the house again. But even when the house was built, and everything seemed to be going better... the house still felt empty."

He breathed in very slowly. "Two years is a very long time, Kaoru, when you count the days away, wondering when such a day will come where you will no longer have to count the days. Ever since I came here again, I had a hope that you would come too and fill the void in this house."

"It's beautiful..." She paused, glancing around the whole house. "Can... I stay?"

"I told you, I'm selfish." He had softened far beyond what she remembered. His feather-light touch danced awkwardly over her skin. She did not mind the change in the slightest. "I would not let you leave now. Chaos has subsided into the best order human society could offer humanity, and there is no longer, I suppose, a need for discretion, secrecy, and disappointment. No, Kaoru, I do not think I could bear to let you leave."

Kaoru smiled at the house and how much it represented their first.

Their house. _Their_ house, she thought gladly.

"I do not think I could manage to make the first step." The wind blew in through the open shoji, brushing over the two, who were no longer standing formally apart. Kaoru closed her eyes, stood on her toes and pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

Kenshin smiled just slightly, almost awkwardly, to her. "You're home."

She stared out to the rising stars and the burning sun, knowing that she did not regret her decision to leave her father, the emperor, behind. She did not mind any longer that she was dirty, tired, and ragged. "No, Kenshin." She corrected him, pushing his unruly hair from his face. "No, we're home."

End.

(And I mean it this time!)

Note: Aww... that's what I get for listening to the most beautifully romantic love song while writing this... I can barely understand it, but I know that it's a love song... it just has that feeling... Of course, I was watching Fushigi Yugi once, while that song was playing, and it was the part with the twins... oh... yeah... good times. Getting on to the official 'thank you's! Thanks to MSW-sama who, unknowingly, dragged me out of a rut in the road to writing this by inspiring me, and helping me through what was, Heaven knows, the worst experience of my life, and severely limited my ability to write. Thanks to Koishii Sweet, who would poke, prod, and frustrate me into updating, but always with a smile and a pick-me-up. Thousands of eternal thanks to each of the people who read this from the start, you all know who you are, but those who I remember off the top of my head are: kik-ting, Allie, victoria, Koishii Sweet, MSW-sama, kaoru-chan21. Without you all, I don't know what I'd have done with myself, except go freakin' insane. You guys, without any doubt, absolutely KICK ARSE. Like a badass, MSW-sama. To EVERYONE who read this story: THANK YOU!!!! Those who yelled at me about my stupidity (danielgudman) when it came to such and such in the notes, and those who suggested ways to make it better, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to point out my dumb mistakes. For each and every one of you who've stuck around to read this far in an author's note: I love you dearly, and hope to see you all next time, in the next story! Thank you, and good night, folks!


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